The HSE has said it would have to shed about 700 staff per month between now and the end of the year to meet new employment targets set down by the Government for the health service.
Both the HSE and the Department of Health separately confirmed yesterday that the service had been told to reduce the number of whole-time equivalent employees (WTEs) to 94,209 by the end of the year.
“The health services are currently 2,669 WTEs above this employment target, to meet this target by year-end would require reductions of the order of 700 WTEs per month over the remaining months of 2014. This is based on the July census and further planned recruitment to year-end,” the HSE said.
The development comes as Minister for Health Leo Varadkar faces resistance to his demands for increased health spending next year.
Biggest hurdle
A financial settlement for the health service next year is seen as the biggest hurdle to be overcome before the budget is unveiled on October 14th.
Mr Varadkar is likely to receive a supplementary budget estimate to meet a spending overrun this year. However, he has been told that any rise in health spending next year would necessitate equivalent cutbacks in other departments.
It is recognised in Government circles that the spending proposals now under discussion would lead to a reduction in health payroll spending.
At the same time, the argument is made that at least some of the payroll reductions could be achieved by engaging new health service staff to replace agency staff who are more expensive to use.
Voluntary redundancies
The Department of Health said yesterday there could be a further round of voluntary redundancies as a result of moves to combine individual hospitals around the country into groups.
In a statement the department said that these were among a number of measures available to health service management in a bid to reduce staffing levels.
These include the graduate nurse initiative, the support staff intern scheme and the 5.2 million additional employee hours made available to the HSE due to increased working hours under the Haddington Road agreement.
The HSE said the new maximum employment levels were set by the Government in June. However union leaders said details of the reduced staffing limits were never published or revealed to them.
The comments by the department about the use of the support staff intern scheme to facilitate the reduction in headcount comes at a time when industrial action is being considered by the trade union Siptu over how the programme is being implemented in some hospitals.
