Health service staff may initially be sought to work on Saturdays as part of plans by HSE management to introduce new patterns of working over an extended day and week.
The HSE has also indicated in a position paper given to trade unions that it may look for personnel to opt for weekend working on a voluntary basis.
However, it said if there were insufficient volunteers, “a rota of eligible staff will be drawn up by local management to resource the required extended hours of service”.
The HSE maintained that all staff employed or promoted on or after December 16th, 2008 would be contractually obliged to be rostered for weekend working.
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It said personnel employed or promoted before December 16th, 2008 and not subsequently promoted “will be requested to work an extended day/week on a voluntary basis”.
In one of the biggest policy changes in the health system in years, the HSE wants up to 10 per cent of the workforce to be available for rostered weekend work.
HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster said in April that the organisation wanted to begin rostering more staff to work over weekends from the end of June.
In a position paper on the plan sent to trade unions in recent days, the HSE said “the overarching aim of this extended hours of patient/client service initiative is to facilitate a smoother patient flow and access in all aspects of the healthcare system over a full seven-day week”.
It said the Government had committed to:
• Continuing the transition to regular hospital care being available to patients seven days a week
• Ensuring greater access to diagnostics in the evenings and weekends
• Ensuring even more routine healthcare services are available in the evenings and weekends
• Ensuring more senior staff are rostered in emergency departments during weekends and public holidays
• Standardising the opening hours of injury units to ensure a consistent seven-day service from 8am to 8pm and open at least an additional 12 such facilities
• Ensuring greater use of diagnostic equipment and operating theatres at evenings and weekends.
The HSE set out principles to guide staff engagement for this first phase of this initiative.
It said staff who had previously worked on a Monday to Friday 9-5 basis were “being requested to deliver a different working pattern over a six- or seven-day week, to meet the requirements for services over an extended day/week”.
“The initial priority focus may be for example on extending service provisions for Saturday/five over six (day) working. However, the same principles will apply depending on the proposed plan for the extension of services outside current working patterns for staff: For example: to five/seven up to and including evenings and extended days/shift patterns. “
The HSE said delivery of extended hours of service would vary from site to site “as it is dependent on the level of service need, the delivery approach and existing work patterns/arrangements”.
“To deliver quick and effective response over extended hours, staff will be requested, in the first instance, to participate in rostered extended hours of service delivery. It is noted that the flexibility associated with extended work patterns will suit many staff from a personal work-life balance perspective.”
“In the event that not enough staff volunteer, a rota of eligible staff will be drawn up by local management to resource the required extended hours of service. “
