Regional hospitals to come under private sector control
Health Minister James Reilly said the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick and University Hospital Galway will come under outside consultancy management.
However, IMPACT, the trade union, said the move may breach the Croke Park Agreement, and means a system which encouraged senior officials to retire early “is now forced to rely on more expensive measures to fill the human resources gaps” caused by the plan.
A spokesperson for Dr Reilly told the Irish Examiner five companies were in the running for the project, which is expected to last for approximately a year.
It is understood the move will introduce a new management structure that will report directly to the Department of Health.
Existing management will undergo upskilling to ensure they can provide a higher standard of care and budget control in future.
In a letter to Dr Reilly yesterday, IMPACT national secretary Louise O’Donnell questioned the plan.
“Is the process an attempt to bypass both the moratorium on public service recruitment and public service pay guides in order to recruit individuals to senior management positions on third-party contracts?”
She added that the plan also raises questions “as to how the HSE has drained itself of senior management personnel under the early retirement and voluntary redundancy scheme of 2010”.
She said these questions arise because the HSE “is now forced to rely on more expensive measures to fill the human resources gaps created by the scheme”.
