Fourteen days to cut costs or…

Fourteen days to cut costs or …


West region given two weeks to avoid job cuts

Rowan Gallagher

The west has two weeks to make cost savings if the imposition of reduced hours for workers is to be avoided.  The two-week reprieve has been negotiated by unions and the HSE in order to facilitate possible cost-cutting ideas in an effort to minimise damage to services in Mayo and the west.
At a meeting on Friday, August 13, the HSE and Unions agreed that further cost containment plans would need to be discussed at all levels of the HSE and unions in order to minimise job losses and damage to vital services.
A spokesperson for the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) told The Mayo News that volunteers for career breaks, unpaid leave and flexibility would be sought over the next two weeks in order to minimise a potential €91 million deficit in the western region. A deadline of August 31 has been given for submissions on the cost-saving plans.
“I am sure there are more ways. If there are job losses this will directly affect services. From a nursing point of view, they can’t take any more cuts, they are stretched enough as it is.
“People going on maternity leave are not replaced in the current system. We have always called for nursing staff to be left out of the public service moratorium,” Regina Durcan of the INMO told The Mayo News.
In the coming weeks, 1,600 Irish trained nurses will finish their degree programmes with no prospect of finding employment in Ireland. Many will be forced to emigrate due to the public service moratorium.
Mayo General Hospital may face reduced hours for 66 temporary nursing staff, six attendants and four porters if an adequate cost-saving plan can not be put in place in the next two weeks.
A similar two-week reprieve was given before the eventual closure of a bungalow housing patients with intellectual disabilities in Aras Attracta, Swinford.
Working through the Labour Relations Commission, the meeting was agreed to be positive by all parties.
The consultation process will take place over the next fortnight with an end deadline of August 31 for submissions on cost-saving plans.
The report that suggested the cuts was commissioned from UK consultants Mott MacDonald by the HSE at a cost of €90,000. The consultants recommended a range of options for cost-cutting, including the termination of 1,000 temporary contracts and the possible ‘closure of a hospital’ in an attempt to help HSE West break even by the end of the year.
Though the report cost €90,000, the HSE claims the report, which set out possible savings of between €44 million and €54 million, was just a guide for management and that no firm decisions had been taken.
From Tuesday, August 10, to Monday, August 16, 46 people were observed on trolleys in Mayo General Hospital with a spike on Thursday, August 12, when a total of 23 people were observed being forced to wait on trolleys, according to the INMO’s Trolley Watch figures.