Hospitals may use low-paid

Hospitals will be able to effectively side-step the controversial recruitment ban from next year — but may resort to using low-paid graduates to fill some chronic staffing gaps as part of the plan.

Under measures announced as part of Budget 2015, Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin said departments will from January have “discretion” over how they comply with the controversial money-saving rule.

Health Minister Leo Varadkar said the Department of Health will use this opening — which it had specifically requested — to bring in extra staff and reduce the need to rely on expensive agency workers who are costing the service €250m a year.

Under the existing policy, hospitals and other health facilities had their staff numbers limited to a rigid head count in order to keep down costs.

In a significant shift away from an approach which has been in place since 2007, from next year they will instead be given a set amount of money for staffing, and be able to employ as many workers as they wish provided this financial cap is not breached.

Mr Varadkar said the policy change was called for by his department as the service is spending too much money on agency workers, whose employment could instead be “regularised”.

Noting that some senior doctors who work for agencies used to fill gaps on a short-term basis can cost up to €300,000 a year, he said there is clear value to the taxpayer in changing the approach, as employing these doctors on longer contracts could half the cost.

When asked what other options are available as part of this flexibility, he said the policy change may also include “enhancing” the graduate nursing scheme — a suggestion which is likely to anger medical unions.

The Government initiative allows for 1,000 new nurse graduates to gain employment in the health service on reduced pay for their first two years of work, and has been repeatedly described by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation as promoting “yellow-pack” positions.

While 1,000 roles are currently available under the scheme, Mr Varadkar admitted interest in the posts has been “poor”, suggesting a push to fill the positions could be on the cards as part of the plan.