A former Labour Court chairperson will be drafted in today to take part in negotiations over the formation of the new Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) in an effort to meet the March 1st deadline for the establishment of the authority.
The ERHA will replace the Eastern Health Board on that date and become the statutory body with responsibility for the health of the 1.3 million people who live in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow.
Unions representing EHB staff have, however, expressed doubt about the possibility of the March 1st deadline being met. "Our view is that it will not be possible for the authority to be operational on March 1st or anything like it," an IMPACT official said.
IMPACT, which represents about 3,000 staff in the health board, said it was completely unacceptable that staff, with fewer than five weeks to go, had no idea of where they would be working under the new structures or if their promotional prospects would change.
"We are very concerned that there has been very little consultation with staff or unions in the run-up to this. There is complete confusion among staff," he said.
The official confirmed that IMPACT had already balloted its members on industrial action. They had voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking action, the form of which has yet to be decided, if the ERHA task force insisted on pushing ahead with the formation of the new authority without sufficient time being spent on ensuring the needs of staff were considered.
Under the new system, three area health boards - the Northern Area Health Board, the East Coast Area Health Board, and the South Western Area Health Board - will be set up in what was formerly the EHB region and they will deliver within their own areas the services previously provided by the EHB.
The three new boards, along with the voluntary hospitals such as St James's, the Mater and Beaumont, which were previously funded by the Department of Health, will receive their funding through the ERHA on foot of agreed service plans.
SIPTU, which represents 4,000 staff, said 600 staff will be directly affected by the changes in terms of work location, jobs, duties, grades and structures they will operate under.
The EHB has insisted the new structures will mean no change in the working locations of the vast majority of staff.
It issued a statement saying that as soon as the Bill establishing the ERHA was passed last June, the board began an intensive round of consultation with its staff.