Report criticises HSEA hospital role

The departments of Health and Finance have too much control over the employment policies of hospitals, and that is damaging industrial relations, according to a report from the Labour Relations Commission (LRC).

The Department of Health is to face demands for a review of this control in September.

The report, Review of Industrial Relations in the Health Service, from the LRC's Advisory Development and Research Service, was commissioned by the Minister for Health.

Submitted this month, it will be discussed by health service unions, the Department of Health and Children, the Department of Finance and the Health Service Employers Agency (HSEA) at a symposium hosted by the LRC this autumn.

The report says industrial relations in hospitals are under constant pressure and are not helped, according to hospital managers, by the fact that the HSEA is too closely controlled by the Departments. This renders it unable to properly fulfil its role as an advocate for health service employers.

The key finding was that local managers saw the HSEA as more an advocate for the needs of the Departments than for health employers. There was a perception that unions' efforts to overcome these problems made their work, and not that of the HSEA, more difficult.

The report says there is concern at management level about the extent to which morale in the health service has deteriorated in recent years. Many were leaving the health service, and management was finding it difficult to recruit qualified staff.

Commenting on the report, Mr Finbarr Fitzpatrick, secretary-general of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, described the role of the Department of Finance in hospital employment decisions as "overriding" and "stifling".

Welcoming a review of the role of the HSEA, he said there was a lack of confidence in the HSEA to resolve problems.

The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, accepted the "broad thrust" of the report, saying: "The detailed diagnosis contained in the review clearly highlights the need for a major reappraisal of the industrial relations environment in the health service."