Sir, – The revelation that "HSE hired five times more senior managers than doctors, report shows" (News, January 3rd) in the second quarter of last year is, I am afraid, par for the course for this organisation.
It is now so top-heavy with senior management personnel that it is in danger of toppling over! – Yours, etc,
TADHG McCARTHY,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, – Paul Cullen reports that the HSE made 25 additional appointments to its most senior management level in the second quarter of 2021. During the same period it recruited five people who are doctors or dentists, the lowest growth in headcount in any staff category.
Those of us who take the trouble to read the HSE’s Health Service Employment Report will not be surprised. You allowed me to point out before (Letters, April 6th, 2021) that in the period between October 2013 and January 2021 the headcount growth in the most senior “executive management” roles was 112 per cent, while that for medical and dental specialists was 41 per cent.
In other words, the apparently startling fact highlighted by Paul Cullen is not an aberration.
It is, rather, perfectly consistent with what we have been seeing since 2013.
Perhaps we should not be surprised that those at the most senior management levels in our public health service are of the view that the solution to its well-flagged problems is more of their kind rather than more doctors and dentists.
Would it be too much to expect the Minister for Health to point out the obvious to them? – Yours, etc,
PAT O’BRIEN,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.