HSE CEO says no to rostering review before implementation

The HSE CEO has ruled out any evaluation of weekend rostering for consultants before such arrangements are rolled out across the health service.

At the IMO AGM, the Organisation’s national consultant committee voted for a “comprehensive review” into the advantages, feasibility, and expected consequences of increased rostering of consultant staff over weekends.

When asked by the Medical
Independent (MI) about the motion, Mr Bernard Gloster said: “I’m certainly not in favour of any further analysis, or any other long-term debate, about it before we start it. And we have to start it.”

Mr Gloster suggested the initial baseline should be the rostering for the 2025 St Patrick’s bank holiday weekend. This saw a reduction in trolley numbers and increase in discharges compared to the St Brigid’s bank holiday weekend.

“We will use that baseline and, hopefully, from the end of June on, let’s see what it looks like,” he told MI. “And then let’s review it; let’s review all of the factors.”

Earlier, Mr Gloster told the AGM, which took place in Killarney at the end of April, that he wants up to 10 per cent of all healthcare staff to be rostered at weekends before the end of June.

Pressures on consultant rostering and workplans featured prominently during the national consultant meeting.

Dr Peadar Gilligan, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, stated that consultants are already familiar with working weekends. However, he said that while consultants may be required to work “10 hours on a Saturday” under the new public-only contract, they are also entitled to time off in return.

The problem, Dr Gilligan said, is that this compensatory time off must be taken at another point during the week, effectively “taking resources out” of another day.

He said that if the HSE and Minister for Health are trying to introduce more consultant working hours on weekends “we are going to have to achieve this in a way that is sustainable…. I just don’t think we are there yet… we don’t have the staffing levels.”