IT has been confirmed that private companies are bidding for a contract to come into the Mid-Western Regional Hospital and manage it.
A spokesperson for Health Minister, Dr James Reilly, told the Limerick Post that whichever of the companies wins the contract for running the hospital for up to 15 months, will be obliged to upskill the existing management team.
There are three UK and one Irish company in the running for the lucrative contract and, the spokesman added, “the aim of this is not to privatise the hospital. It is for the hospital to have access to state- of- the- art management skills, as there are aspects of the current management structures which need to be supported”.
The move has outraged IMPACT, who are describing it as a breach of the Croke Park agreement.
In a letter to the minister, IMPACT’s national secretary, Louise O’Donnell, said the plans lays bare how “the HSE has drained itself of senior management personnel under the Incentivised Early Retirement and Voluntary Redundancy scheme of 2010, forcing the HSE to rely on more expensive measures to fill the human resources gaps created by the scheme”.
Meanwhile, following 12 hours of talks on Wednesday at the Labour Relations Commission, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and SIPTU, have agreed to suspend all industrial action at the Mid Western Regional Hospital for a four week period to allow for a full review of the situation in the emergency department, where nurses say patients are at risk because of conditions.
For the duration of this four week period, additional resources have been provided and HSE.
