HSE overtime bill - Patients and taxpayers put at risk

THERE could hardly be more glaring or costly proof of the need for reform of the health service than today’s revealing report on the sheer scale of overtime payments to HSE staff.

With the health system creaking, the economy in tatters, 400,000 people unemployed, and tens of thousands of families mired in poverty, the spiralling level of overtime, especially for hospital registrars, is alarming.

Even more disturbing than the financial figures are the implications for patient safety in understaffed hospitals, where jaded doctors have to work unacceptably long hours.