Surgeries involving heart-lung machines may be cancelled when perfusionists strike

Any surgery that requires the use of a heart-lung machine will be impacted by the work stoppage. Stock image. 

Planned surgeries that would require heart-lung machines might have to be cancelled next week when the country’s 25 perfusionists, who monitor the specialised machines during surgery, go on strike.

The perfusionists are represented by the trade union Forsa, who have notified the HSE of a one-day work stoppage next week and on two days the following week.

Forsa spokesperson Linda Kelly said the HSE had failed to engage with the trade union on contingency planning.

“We're currently in the dark because the HSE haven't responded to quite a number of correspondence from us looking for engagement," she told RTÉ's Morning Ireland on Wednesday.  

Ms Kelly explained that any surgery that requires the use of a heart-lung machine will be impacted by the work stoppage. 

“We're talking about the most serious of operations, and I'd have to question the HSE statement in regards to contingency planning because contingency planning requires the union and the HSE to be meeting and to be talking together," she said. 

“We've been available for the last two and a half weeks since we were notified of the industrial action, and there has been no contact from the HSE with regards contingency planning," Ms Kelly said. 

There had been very poor engagement from the beginning of the dispute, which has been going on for two years, she added..

In the past, perfusionists were paid the same rate as medical laboratory scientists, but in January 2024, the HSE “decided to break that pay link.”

“The Labour Court made a recommendation to restore it in January, and the HSE has refused to implement that. When they say that they're willing to engage in discussion under local bargaining, they forget to mention that there is not enough money in the local bargaining process to pay the claim, and so they want us to enter into a discussion that cannot possibly hold a solution for the issue," Ms Kelly said. 

“The reality is the HSE broke a pay link that has been in existence since the 1960s. They had no right to do that, and they now need to restore it and honour the Labour Court recommendation. It's a very simple dispute; there's a very simple resolution.” 

The difference between the two pay rates is €233,000 per year for all 25 perfusionists, which “not even 0.5 per cent of the health budget”, added Ms Kelly.