Unions ‘will not accept privatised health service’

Healthcare unions have warned they will not sit back and allow sections of the public health service be outsourced to private companies, because of the HSE recruitment embargo.

SIPTU sectoral organiser Kevin Figgis has warned unions have “grave concerns” privatisation is sneaking into the health services.

In Cork city, a long-awaited PET/CT scanner went into operation at CUH last month, but is being run by a private company, Alliance Medical, as hospital management were unable to hire sufficient staff to run the service. The hospital’s MRI scanner is also operated by a private company.

“If it’s the case that behind the HSE, the Department of Health and Department of Public Expenditure are not giving approval to projects and that the HSE is left then with bringing in privatisation; if that’s the message, that needs to be said and we would have to respond to that accordingly. This is not compliant with the Croke Park Agreement.”

SIPTU has long argued against increased privatisation of the health service, marching in Cork last month to oppose the increased use of private home help providers.

SIPTU and management from CUH held meetings in recent weeks to discuss a shortage of radiography staff and the ongoing privatisation of radiography services on the campus.

The unions want to refer the staff shortages to the Labour Relations Commission and are waiting upon hospital management to decide if the referral will be joint or unilateral.

According to Mr Figgis, the radiography department at Cork University Hospital (CUH) has suffered a sharp reduction in staff numbers. At present there are approximately 50 radiographers in the department but it’s understood this figure needs to rise by approximately 20%.

SIPTU says radiographers have been one of the greatest contributors to the Croke Park Agreement (CPA) delivering up to €3m in savings by changing to an hourly on-call rate rather than a per-patient charge on call.

Under CPA, radiographers also agreed to change their working day from 9am-5pm to 8am-8pm. The changes began last February.

SIPTU is calling for an independent analysis of the hospital’s radiography needs and demands.

A CUH spokesman yesterday said: “The posts to operate the pet scanner could not be recruited by CUH. The contracted out-service enabled the scanner to become operational and available to patients in the region, an approach that is working very successfully. As for the LRC request, CUH and SIPTU are currently in negotiations.”