HSE plan ‘to compromise patient safety’, according to nursing union

The country’s largest nursing union has claimed a HSE plan to save a further €80m under the Haddington Road Agreement will "seriously compromise patient safety".

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation claims the measures under the HSE’s latest savings plan, which were presented to unions last week, are all focused on the frontline and have no impact on management structures in the health service. It says they include:

* A further reduction in staffing.

* A reduction in the “skill mix”, particularly in services looking after the older person and the disabled, so that the number of professionals is reduced replacing them with inexperienced staff.

* Filling nursing vacancies in the community with newly-graduated nurses. The union says that is contrary to best practice and that new graduates require peer support and mentorship for a period.

* A reduction in the number of operational nurse managers in the care-of-the-older-person sector.

* Substitution of experienced/trained support staff in other sectors with new staff.

The INMO said it has now sought meetings with the three ministers in the Department of Health to detail its concerns and demand the plans be withdrawn. It also wants to go before the Oireachtas Health Committee over the issue and has sought an immediate meeting with the director of patient safety and quality in the HSE.

The union’s general secretary Liam Doran said the proposals were totally driven by the demand for the health service to deliver further cash savings.

“There is no question but that these measures will, following on from six years of successive frontline cuts, gravely compromise patient safety and the ability of nurses and midwives to deliver safe care through safe practice,” he said.

Mr Doran said reducing the number of professionals working in the frontline and replacing them with inexperienced staff was a “fundamentally flawed approach which will only lower standards, reduce productivity and lower the outcomes for patients”.

A spokeswoman for the HSE said it was simply seeking to implement the terms of the Haddington Road Agreement to which the INMO had signed up.

“The HSE requires the extra hours identified under the agreement to be used in the first instance to reduce the health sector pay bill as per the intention of the agreement,” she said. “The HSE is extremely cognisant of the importance of patient safety and considers it a priority above all else. It is not correct to say that the HSE “is seeking an additional €80m”. The HSE is seeking to achieve the original target set for it by DPER of €290m. This money has already been removed from the HSE’s Vote allocation.”