Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 March 2012
225 Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health his plans to review the Health Service Executive national service plan in view of the extra numbers of staff who retired as part of the grace period scheme; when this review will take place; when it will be competed; when the review will be made public; if an end to the recruitment moratorium will be considered as part of this review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16038/12]
View answer226 Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Health the specific services which will be cut or diminished due to greater than forecast numbers of persons retiring as part of the grace period scheme; the way he intends to minimise the effects of this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16039/12]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 225 and 226 together.
Considerable work was undertaken by my Department and the HSE in recent months to manage and plan for the impact of retirements from the health sector in the lead-up to the end of the ‘grace period' on 29 February last. The focus was and continues to be on protecting and maintaining critical front line services.
Within the HSE, contingency plans were developed locally for both hospital and community services, reflecting risk assessments undertaken by each hospital/community manager. These have been reviewed on an ongoing basis at regional and national levels to ensure appropriate contingency measures are in place across all services.
The HSE National Service Plan 2012 acknowledged that there will be an inevitable and unavoidable reduction in services this year because of the scale of the financial and staffing challenge facing the health service including ‘grace period' retirements. It is, therefore, necessary to be as innovative and flexible as possible in order to mitigate the impact on services of reduced budgets and staffing. The mitigation measures which are in place include the backfilling of certain critical posts. However, the priority is to reform how health services are delivered, in order to ensure a more productive and cost effective health system.
The need for dynamic and proactive management of the reduced budgets and staff will remain and will continue throughout the year. In this context, the National Service Plan will, therefore, be subject to ongoing review.
The Government has determined that, in line with its commitment to reduce the size of the public service, health sector employment numbers must be reduced by about 2,300 WTE to approximately 102,100 WTE in 2012. The moratorium on recruitment is necessary to achieve this reduction. There are no plans to change this policy.
