asked the Minister for Health whether he intends to accede to the request from the Dublin Health Authority to create the post of medical secretary who would commence at a point above the minimum of the salary scale.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin Health Authority Appointments.
6.
My approval has been conveyed already to the creation of ten additional offices of clerk/typist in the service of the Dublin Health Authority, with a recommendation that experienced officers should be assigned to medical staffs.
I am reluctant at this stage to acquiesce in a change of title or to interfere with normal incremental progression pending the outcome of a general examination of the administrative and clerical grading structures in the health services now being conducted by a firm of management consultants in co-operation with my officers and the Irish Local Government Officials' Union.
The Deputy may be assured, however, that the question of the type of officer most suitable to provide secretarial assistance to medical officers will be considered in the course of this appraisal.
Does the Minister not appreciate that because of the change from the custodial to the community type service a very complicated organisation, professional, administrative and para-medical, must now be created and that these duties cannot be left to persons of a clerk-typist qualification because they are simply not experienced for it. In the light of the urgency of the problem could the Minister not agree to a temporary arrangement pending the findings of this committee which is set up?
I am not sure whether I would be able to agree to a temporary grade being created because, the Deputy knows, with the formation of the health boards it is absolutely essential to have agreement both with the management side and with the unions side as to what should be the grades of the enlarged health boards; how the staffs are to be redistributed; and as to how they are to be placed in relation to the enlarged health boards. This matter relates not only to the quality of the service to be provided but also to industrial relations. In trying to have a changeover of a most complex type, from 27 health authorities to eight health boards, the Deputy will appreciate one cannot rush one's fences.
I appreciate this is a complicated problem but I would remind the Minister that it was he himself who raised it last May. Would he not agree that, because of the delay that has taken place and because of the delay that is likely to take place, the service will inevitably suffer and that it will be impossible to create the kind of efficient organisation which I think the Minister has in mind when he talks about improvements?
I agree with the Deputy but when I attended the conference of chief psychiatrists, senior psychiatrists and county managers in May, I did outline the priorities and gave a perfectly clear indication of the kind of changes that would have to take place in the service. The Deputy knows that certain changes are taking place and have taken place and he can be assured I have this very much in mind and I will do my best to expedite consideration of it.
May I remind the Minister that there is a continuous migration of staff from the local authorities to industry where people can get very much better pay and the result is that the local authority health service is suffering?
That may be so.