HSE defends ‘increase’ in number of managers it employs

The HSE has defended the number of managers it employs after a senator claimed a re-categorisation — which appears to show a reduction — had instead masked an increase in management numbers.

Senator Colm Burke raised the query at a meeting of the Oireachtas Health Committee and said he had previously been told there was approximately 5,000 staff at management level within the HSE.

Figures provided to the committee showed, at the end of 2014, the numbers employed at management level, in whole time equivalents, stood at 4,721.

However, by the end of 2015, the figure had fallen to 1,327 and, by the end of last year, stood at 1,445, due to the re-categorisation which removed grade VI and VII staff from management classification.

Instead, there was a corresponding increase in clerical and administration posts, including those grade VI and VII staff, from 10,399 in 2014 to 14,837 at the end of 2015 and 15,322 at the end of last year.

Senator Burke argued that from 2014-2016 there had actually been a 10% increase in managers and admin whereas there was a need for more frontline staff.

A spokesman for the HSE said the staff of the health services were central to improvement in patient care, productivity and performance “and without them, it would not be possible to deliver the wide range of health services provided every day across the country”.

He said there had been a reduction of 15.8% in health service management /administrative staff, equating to approximately 2,842 whole-time equivalents, through recruitment embargos and other measures since 2009, as well as restructuring within the HSE.