The HSE has cited ‘recruitment difficulties’ as a reason for outsourcing a new 40-bed step-down unit in the same month that thousands applied for clerical posts in the health service. IMPACT has said it won’t co-operate with outsourcing at the new facility in south Tipperary, but says it will discuss directly-employed clerical and admin arrangements with management.

The new unit has been built at south Tipperary general hospital in Clonmel. But the HSE wants it run as a ‘managed service,’ which would see one directly-employed manager from the hospital overseeing a privatised service. Unions met management regarding the controversy last month.

IMPACT national secretary Eamonn Donnelly said the HSE’s insistence on outsourcing risked ruining a rare good news story in health.

“We all welcome the new facility as a highly positive development. But there’s no need to outsource and there was no prior discussion on what management knew would be a highly controversial privatisation proposal, which staff could not support. Management now needs to sit down with us to agree an in-house staffing structure so that the people of south Tipp can get access to a high-quality public health service,” he said.