A three-month recruitment and overtime freeze ordered in the health services has been deemed “complete madness” at a time when there are already massive staff shortages. Labour’s Alan Kelly exposed the HSE plan and said the ban would only worsen health budget problems and further impact on hospital waiting lists. The new recruitment embargo emerged in a letter from the deputy director general and chief operations officer of the HSE and circulated across health services last week. However, the new health crisis took another turn yesterday as it was also claimed by Mr Kelly that Health Minister Simon Harris rang him and said he was unaware of the recruitment ban. He said he had spoken to the HSE who had assured him that “recruitment restrictions will not be introduced unless hospital managers fail to outline their budget plans”.

Source: Irish Examiner April 08, 2019 05:03 UTC