Absenteeism in West region is improving, says HSE official

THE HSE West says it is starting to see significant improvements in its battle against absenteeism in the region.

Senior HSE official Daniel McCallion made the disclosure ahead of the issuing of a report by a task force, established to deal with absenteeism in the HSE West area.

The HSE confirmed that in September there were 1,100 staff calling in sick on a daily basis, from Donegal to Limerick. There are 26,000 staff in HSE West.

The HSE West’s assistant national director for finance Liam Minihan confirmed the estimated monthly sick leave cost in the region was €5 million.

He conceded improvement has been small in overall terms.

However, he said: “A significant amount of activity has gone into, in every area, to try and improve what we call attendance at work as against absenteeism.”

Mr McCallion stated: “This is something that demands constant management attention and it will continue to get that over the coming months to bring the attendance levels back into line with targets.”

He said the increasing of attendance rates will make a significant difference in the context of the numbers that are expected to retire from the HSE.

“If we can bring the levels back up, that will help reduce the impact on services.”

Human resources’ assistant national director Francis Rogers said a detailed report by a task force dealing with absenteeism in the West is to be issued within days.

Chair of the HSE West area Cllr Padraig Conneely (FG) said: “The improvement is encouraging. The figures published in September were alarming and all of the calls of people phoning in sick each day can’t be genuine.

“The HSE needs to be more aggressive and rigorous in addressing the absenteeism. It is a very critical time for the HSE and the executive has to take more steps to address the absenteeism.

“I am anxiously awaiting the report on absenteeism and I hope it shows vast improvements.”

A spokesman for Dr James Reilly said yesterday: “The minister looks forward to the analysis by the HSE West of the absenteeism, while supporting continued focused action to address the absenteeism.

“While absenteeism is a fact of line in all workplaces, both staff and management need to work together to minimise absenteeism so that service levels can be maintained.”