Unions at Tallaght Hospital will begin balloting on industrial action on Monday because of threatened staff layoffs. SIPTU, the hospital's main non-medical union, expects a vote favouring all-out strike action, set for the beginning of March.
It is a further setback for Tallaght, which will have no chief executive from April following Dr David McCutcheon's resignation.
The proposed action would involve more than 90 per cent of the administrative, technical, nursing, and laboratory staff, and possibly junior doctors. Other unions involved are IMPACT, the AEEU, the Irish Nurses' Organisation and the Irish Medical Organisation.
Mr Paul Bell, SIPTU branch secretary, representing more than 400 workers, said employees believed management had breached an existing industrial relation protocol. "SIPTU are calling on the Department of Health to reject any service plan from the hospital that would contain job cuts," said Mr Bell.
It has been suggested that there may be up to 200 job cuts to bring the hospital in line with its 1999 service plan. The plan will be presented to the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, in mid-February. Mr Cowen requested an extension so that it could be completed in consultation with the team he appointed to oversee hospital management last week.
It is understood there will be no further funding from the Department, despite calls from hospital management for an additional £4 million. The hospital was allocated £64.69 million for 1999. The Department believes that so far the hospital budget has been very badly managed and there is no way this could be allowed to continue.
Hospital sources point to bigger budgets in Beaumont and St James's. But Department sources, examining the case mix at the various hospitals (the number of patients treated and the complexity of the treatment) say the other voluntary hospitals conduct more complicated procedures. Tallaght, they say, does not have national specialisations such as the cardiac unit in the Mater, neurology in Beaumont or liver transplants in St Vincent's.
It has also been pointed out that as well as this year's allocation, the hospital will receive more than £3 million from the Federation of Dublin Voluntary Hospitals. This brings the annual budget close to £69 million.
This federation, a long-standing statutory body, which dealt with issues common to the three hospitals before the merger, is now based in Tallaght. It is also funded by the Department of Health.
Mr Conal Devine, of the Irish Medical Organisation, said a meeting would take place today between management and almost 130 junior doctors to discuss a possible overtime cut. Their concern, said Mr Devine, was that even if overtime payments were cut they would "inevitably" have to continue doing the work. "Unless there is a satisfactory explanation tomorrow we will not even wait until Monday. We will start balloting immediately."
A brief statement from hospital management last night said staff concerns were known and were being taken "into consideration in the planning process".
Mr Bell said morale was very poor because there were "no definite answers coming from management". "We have had three meetings with management recently and I am no wiser than I was. But we are not now prepared to engage in meaningful negotiations as long as the threat remains."
An INO representative, Ms Deirdre Gillane, representing almost 800 nurses, said concerns centred on 200 nurses on temporary or fixed-term contracts.