HSE’s extended hours rostering welcomed in Waterford
HSE’s extended hours rostering welcomed in Waterford but Sinn Féin say more needs to be done
Sinn Féin spokesperson on Health, Deputy David Cullinane TD, has said that the announcement from the HSE that additional staff will be rostered over extended hours and over seven days is an important step in the right direction.
However, he said it’s only a small piece of the move to a properly functioning seven-day health service.
Commenting to Waterford-news.ie about the issue, Deputy Cullinane said: “The health service could be far more efficient and productive if it was fully operational across the week. This would not only help with weekend discharges and trolley chaos, but it would also allow greater use of equipment which can often be lying idle during evenings or on weekends.” While acknowledging that weekend and extended hours rostering across more staff grades is an important step in the right direction, he said spreading productivity across six or seven days will not be enough to make substantial progress.
“If there is a 25 per cent increase in workable hours, the same staff cannot be expected to pick up the burden,” he said.
“Staff will continue to work their normal weekly hours,” he added.
“This change by itself will see more staff working at weekends, but without additional staff it will mean less staff working during the week” He said a significant and strategic workforce plan is needed for the health service to ramp-up capacity and also suggested that changed to working arrangements must be advanced, following engagement with workers and their unions, alongside a ramp-up in the frontline HSE workforce.
“The move to a fully-operational six and then seven-day health service must be taken as an opportunity to reduce costing ‘insourcing’ and ‘outsourcing,’ where high fees can be charged for work outside of normal hours,” said Deputy Cullinane.
“The HSE must ensure that there is the same level of productivity and quality of care delivered whether it is during the week or at the weekend,” he added. “More staff working ordinary contracted hours at the weekend and during the evenings is the best way to achieve this.”
