€5m monthly bill for HSE sick days

Up to 1,100 Health Service Executive (HSE) employees are, on average, out sick every day in the HSE West area, which includes County Clare, costing the organisation €5 million a month in lost productivity.

This was confirmed by assistant national director of finance, Liam Minihan, at a HSE West Forum meeting in Galway on Tuesday. This latest revelation has prompted concern among forum members, who have requested the agency to embark on a new drive to cut the high levels of absenteeism in hospital and health facilities.
HSE Forum West chairman, Councillor Pádraig Conneely, said a large number of very sick people must be working in the HSE.
“I thought the HSE was there to treat sick people. It seems the sick people are the ones working in the HSE. I wonder is Monday morning sickness a part of this problem? I would like to see some action to tackle this problem because the HSE can’t afford to be losing €5m a month. I don’t think the private sector would tolerate 1,100 people being out sick on any one day,” he said.
Regional director of operations, John Hennessy, estimated half of the sick leave rate is in frontline areas, such as acute hospitals and community health services. Acknowledging that HSE employees have statutory entitlements once a sick certificate is produced, Mr Hennessy stressed the overall absenteeism level in the HSE West area is too high.
“The HSE has to operate in the real world. Cost is a factor in terms of sick leave and the HSE intends to bring this rate down. Progress has been made in relation to this issue,” he said.
Concern was also expressed about the €2m increase in HSE budget over expenditure from €47.3m in June to €49.3m at the end of last July. This is primarily made up of €46.3m of a deficit in acute hospitals and €3m in primary, community and continuing care. While net expenditure was reduced by €48.3m in July 2011, compared with July 2010, Mr Minihan pointed out these savings were counterbalanced by the €120m cut in the HSE West’s initial allocation at the start of this year.
The highest over-expenditure is in the Mid-West HSE area, which currently stands at €20.3m, compared to €19.7m in Galway and Roscommon and €3.4m in Sligo/Leitrim, which would be a  much smaller health area.
Mr Minahan also admitted that income collection is behind on the budgeted collection target and cost containment plans of €33.7m are being implemented by hospitals and local health offices. He warned about potential cash flow difficulties in December.