Frontline health staff hiring freeze 'will worsen chaos in already overstretched services'

The Irish Medical Organisation's NCHD chairwoman Rachel McNamara said the extended freeze 'will add to the chaos in a system which already does not have enough doctors to deliver safe patient care'. Stock picture

A HSE decision to freeze the recruitment of some frontline staff for financial reasons will increase pressure on already over-stretched services, health unions and politicians have warned.

It comes as new hospital waiting lists figures indicate the system is on course to miss this year’s targets, hospital doctors said.

A freeze was already in place for management but on Friday this was extended to non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHDs), formerly known as junior doctors, and others.

HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster wrote to staff telling them the HSE “faces a period where its funded level which, while quite high, is not adequate for all current costs”.

He said some hiring targets for 2023 have been reached or exceeded.

Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane said the Government’s failure to properly fund health is “reckless in the extreme". 

He pointed to impacts “on patient safety and patients on trolleys, on mental health, on disability, and the almost million people on waiting lists.” 

Irish Medical Organisation NCHD chairwoman Rachel McNamara. 'This recruitment freeze flies in the face of safe staffing levels.' Dr McNamara said. Picture: Stephen Collins/Collins

Specifically on NCHDs, he said they are already doing “a significant and unsafe amount of overtime” due to hundreds of shortages.

Rachel McNamara, chairwoman of the Irish Medical Organisation NCHD committee, said: “This recruitment freeze flies in the face of safe staffing levels. 

"It will add to the chaos in a system which already does not have enough doctors to deliver safe patient care, where many teams across the country are not fully staffed and where NCHDs are still working illegal and unsafe hours,” Dr McNamara said. 

The freeze includes an “immediate cessation” in hiring “additional agency staffing above today’s levels”. Also affected are home-helps, healthcare assistants, attendants, and general support roles.

The memo advises “priority posts within these grades in the short term to be filled through internal redeployment". 

It says workforce and agency numbers will be reviewed in December. Jobs not subject to the freeze include nurses, midwives, consultants, dentists, therapists and ambulance emergency staff.

However the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said they will be impacted. General secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said: “Our members will not be carrying out the roles of grades that the HSE will not recruit. 

"Starving the health service of much-needed staff will send frontline healthcare services into freefall.” 

This comes amid concern at still-high hospital waiting lists despite improvements in some specialities.

National Treatment Purchase Fund data shows 597,081 patients waiting for their first appointment with a consultant, down from 600,819 in August.

However in-patient appointments stand at 83,189 or just 103 less than August.

The Irish Hospital Consultants Association said the Government is behind targets for a 10% reduction by December and is “already facing a 65,000 shortfall by the end of September”.

IHCA President Professor Rob Landers, said: “Clearly more patients are being added to the waiting lists than are being taken off, partly because demand for care is going up and up. This is the fundamental challenge together with insufficient hospital capacity.” 

It estimates 893,000 are waiting on various lists, and said the backlog caused by the pandemic was not accurately predicted.

“This has meant more patients suffering the unacceptable consequences of waiting too long for care,” he said.