Health workers demoralised, executive told

Ordinary health workers today launched a scathing attack on those charged with running the Health Service Executive claiming they were demoralising staff.

Suggesting it was a case of too many cooks, members of the influential Impact union complained that layer upon layer of senior management was compounding problems of bureaucracy.

At the special health conference in Dublin, scores of people talked openly about huge administration delays, refusal of annual leave during the summer, slow recruitment and faceless management.

But senior managers were reluctant to join the attack.

Rosaleen Flanagan, from Roscommon who deals with accounts, said because of red tape her office had to wait 14 weeks for a replacement for sick colleagues.

“I’m sending a very clear message to Brendan Drumm [HSE chief executive], he should allow his managers to manage, it’s a disgrace at the moment,” she said.

After sending several forms off requesting temporary staff she was told someone would be in place for the fortnight before her colleague returned.

John Hanily, an environmental health officer from Roscommon, described HSE bosses as having a Podge and Rodge approach to management.

“The people that are charged with these management positions might not always be the most suitable for the role they are in,” Mr Hanily said.

The debate was sparked after three union members were asked to detail their experiences to the 250 delegates.

In an impassioned speech, one of the trio social worker Sean Scanlon told how his colleagues worked in dangerous areas with no mobile phones, would wait weeks or months to have computers fixed and all this while managers preferred him to show the HSE transformation video to junior staff.

He said: “[It was] the biggest load of balls-ology that I have seen in my lifetime.

“It was an utter waste of time.”

Mr Scanlon said he as embarrassed to show it to his colleagues.

“The HSE could be about far better things and spending its money more wisely than on glossy magazines and articulate videos.”

He went on: “Bewildered, frustrating, demoralising. They are some of the adjectives I could call on.”

Others who spoke included Mary Gorman, a physiotherapist, who said: “It’s time to listen to the real experts but unfortunately there isn’t enough mutual respect in the organisation of the HSE at the moment.”

Edwina Jones, a medical physicist in radiotherapy from Dublin, noted that Ireland was the only country in the developed world with no training programme for her role.

Despite new units due to be opened in St Luke’s, St James’s and Beaumont hospitals no staff are being trained, she claimed.