THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) has said that it is “seriously concerned” that industrial action in the radiotherapy services, which forms part of the campaign currently under way across the public service, has the potential to compromise patient safety.
However last night Siptu strongly denied that radiotherapy services for cancer patients were being affected by the industrial action.
The union’s health professionals’ branch organiser Kevin Figgis said that all patients concerned had received their treatment and would continue to receive their treatment.
In a letter sent yesterday to the trade union Siptu, the HSE sought a formal derogation for radiotherapy services from the industrial action campaign of protest against pay cuts introduced by the Government in the budget.
“Please treat this request with the utmost urgency and please be advised the HSE will take all necessary measures to protect the continuity of patient care,” it said.
HSE sources said that as part of the work-to-rule by radiation therapists, which began on Monday, staff were, among other areas, not checking patients’ daily treatment appointments, not answering phones, taking their full entitlement in terms of tea and lunch breaks, not agreeing to the redeployment of staff and to changing working hours currently in place and not providing weekend on-call arrangements.
However, Mr Figgis said that he had not received the letter from the HSE seeking a derogation for radiotherapy services from the industrial action.
He said that there was no evidence that patients were being affected by the action or that they could not get through to radiotherapy units on the phone.
“All patients have and will continue to be treated,” he said.
Mr Figgis said that radiation therapists were refusing to carry out “indirect administrative duties” as part of the industrial action.
Management across the public services have so far adopted a “softly-softly” approach to the current industrial action campaign.
However, the HSE has signalled that it would consider taking action if it considered that patient safety issues were being compromised.
Separately yesterday lower-paid civil servants who are members of the Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU) staged a half-day ban on answering phones in Government offices in Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Clare and Tipperary.
Some local CPSU branches have also been staging full-day phone bans in some areas as well as closing public counters at lunchtime.
The row over radiotherapy services came as Taoiseach Brian Cowen said he did not believe industrial action by public servants would achieve “any real, constructive objective”.
Speaking in the Dáil yesterday, he said the Government could not simply walk away from the budgetary strategy which involved cuts in public service pay .
However he said the Government had “no desire” to see further reductions in public sector pay rates.
The Taoiseach said that there must be engagement by the unions on reforms that would reduce costs.