Sir, – Your editorial ("Too many managers", December, 1st) concentrated its fury on an area of public-health administration that constitutes just 1.1 per cent of the total number of staff employed in our health services.
The number of health service senior managers has remained at around this level since 2007 as the overall numbers employed in health have declined. Any increase or decrease among such a relatively small group of staff is going to present as a much greater movement when expressed as a proportion of their total number.
Your editorial also states that the HSE employs 48,000 people. However, according to the HSE’s own figures (to September 2014), the total number employed in our health services is just over 97,000, with just over 61,500 of those employed directly by the HSE itself.
It remains the most enduring myth of our health services that it is overburdened with clerical, administrative and management staff.
Between 2009 and 2013, numbers of staff employed in these categories fell by more than any other (apart from “general support staff”). A greater challenge for our health service is to ensure the crippling costs of agency staff are reversed, and that budgets can be used to employ more staff in areas where they are needed. This will increase the capacity of the service and, ultimately, improve the outcome for everyone who uses our health services. – Yours, etc, LOUISE O’DONNELL National Secretary, Health & Welfare division IMPACT Nerney’s Court Dublin 1
Sir, – Surely the reason for the increase in the number of managers in the HSE is as a direct result of the increase in paper work across the health sector . When will someone look at the more important issue of time spent with patients versus time spent writing about patients. Reduce this paper trail of form filling, checklists, ticking of boxes and the need for clip-board management will be reduced. – Yours, etc, MG Storey, RGN, RPN Glencar, Co Sligo.