Impact of latest HSE hiring freeze on patients not yet known, Fórsa says

Head of the Fórsa health and welfare division Ashley Connolly said: 'We raised concerns that this will increase agency spend and force further out-sourcing moving forward.' File picture 

Healthcare workers are still unsure how patients will be affected by a hiring freeze or which jobs it covers, their trade union Fórsa has warned.

HSE regions were told last month to curb spending as the HSE budget deficit hit €250m by March.

HSE South West and HSE Dublin & South East are among three regions facing tighter restrictions including on hiring “non-frontline non-critical” workers and use of agency staff.

Head of the Fórsa Health & Welfare division Ashley Connolly said: “We raised concerns that this will increase agency spend and force further out-sourcing moving forward. 

Every year we are seeing an increase in agency spend. We are now up to an average of €80m a month on agency. It’s over €900m spent on agency last year.

This is driven by staff shortages, she told the Irish Examiner during the Fórsa annual conference in Killarney on Friday. 

Unions have asked which jobs are covered by freeze but do not yet know, she added.

Clerical roles still interact with the public, Ms Connolly said, including “the number of people in any hospital who are used to check in patients, take phone calls, to return phone calls of an anxious person". 

She said of the pause: “I just think it’s scapegoating, it’s something that is used to present like ‘we’re tackling this’ but there needs to be better understanding of the core roles.” 

Ms Connolly called for budget changes, adding: “ The budgets have to move into multi-annual. I don’t think you can run the health services on an annual budget with a stop and a start.” 

The impact of the 2023 hiring freeze is still felt, she said, adding: “How are you supposed to expand services in this cycle of up and down?”