The Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) this morning claimed 6,000 frontline nurses would be lost under HSE plans to not fill posts that become vacant.
In a draft document sent to managers and unions, the HSE said it was seeking to cut management and administrative grades by 500 this year, cut its staff nurse levels by 700, and take over 1,000 personnel off its books by transferring community welfare payments to the Department of Social and Family Affairs.
The HSE circular also warned local service and line managers that they could face disciplinary action if they breached new restrictions on the hiring of agency staff. The HSE circular repeats proposals announced after the Government last month introduced a moratorium on recruitment and promotion in the public service.
Speaking this morning, INO general secretary Liam Doran said in its "draconian" circular, the HSE was saying no post can be filled that is made vacant through resignation or retirement, and that all temporary posts cannot be renewed when the contracts expired.
"That has the potential, if it was literally applied, over the next 20 months to take out 20,000 staff out of the Irish health service," Mr Doran said, adding 13,500 people were working in temporary capacity. If the non-filling of posts was adhered to over the next 20 months, over 6,000 front-line nursing posts will be lost, the INO chief said on Morning Irelandtoday.
He said those lost would be staff nurses and nursing managers, "not backroom staff, middle management people", and that nurses would be forced to work short if staff members were out ill.
"Let's call a spade an absolute spade . . . in the past there has been rhetoric about maintaining essential front-line services, that rhetoric has now been shed, and this circular is absolute capable . . . of undermining and compromising patient care in a way which will be harmful to patients and harmful to staff," Mr Doran said.
"It's based upon a flawed decision of Government, but what the HSE has not explained to Government strongly enough is that this is not capable of being delivered safely in the health service, and what the HSE has done in a much more sinister way is say to its staff . . . if you don't co-operate with this circular you will be disciplined. These are very sinister developments.
"We all recognise there is a financial problem in the country . . . but this is an impossible circular from a nursing perspective to implement because it compromises the very essence of what nursing's about - patient care," he said.
However, speaking on the same programme, Seán McGrath, HSE director of human relations, denied Mr Doran's claims that patient care would be affected.
Noting the organisation had to live within its budget as mandated by Government, he said the INO leader was "talking up" the circular into "something that it certainly is not".
"We're not talking about cutbacks, no one is losing their jobs, and what we are trying to do is optimise our resources . . . to best serve the needs of the organisation and the patients. What we are looking for is greater flexibility to redeploy and reassign our staff within the organisations," Mr McGrath said.
The director said over 13,000 people were hired on a temporary basis in the HSE and that if the specific purpose of that post was finished, the contract would cease. "That is no different here than in any other organisation." He added contracts would be renewed in instances where the work function remained.
"What we are saying is that this is a draft document that was circulated for feedback," said Mr Doran, adding it was "unfortunately" being debated in public.
The HSE has told unions it will defer implementation of its proposals to cut jobs and redeploy staff pending talks next week.
