HSE: Hospital porters take 26 sick days a year

sceptre

__________ wrote: »

It is widely accepted by pretty much everyone.

I believe we both know that you can't back that up with anything resembling empirical evidence. And you were asked for it, which the charter allows members to do. Merely stating that everyone knows is not evidence. Kindly refrain from making sweeping statements that you can't back up, that in fact can't be backed up at all. The Politics forum is for reasoned discussion, not for tripe-style assertions. Please interpret this as an ongoing warning to avoid such behaviour.

/mod

bamboozle

Bill Board wrote: »

Well before this turns into another public vs private thread, id just like to pop in and say that i work in the MWRH in limerick and i can tell ye it doesnt surprise me to see this post about sick pay. The porters down there are without doubt the greatest shower of wasters i have ever come across! While im not going to paint them all with the one brush, the majority of them are absolutely pathetic. We (nurses) ring them to bring a patient to xray or to another ward and they wont show up for 3-4 hours if they do at all. And many wont answer your call, they just hide away in their sitting room reading newspapers. It drives me mad that everyone else has a job to do and we do it well while these wasters get away doing nothing! No surprise the HSE is a sinking ship paying people who sit round all day. Ask any other staff working in there, what are the porters like and they will all say the same, ignorant, useless and disrespectful to both the patients and staff. Those responsible for hiring these cowboys have a lot to answer for aswell. This has been going on for an age, and nothing is been done about it, suppose its the same with anything thats not bought to the medias attention. The hospital is run by very poor management and that allows the porters to do as they please. Sorry about venting my frustrations, but i wanted to paint a clearer picture as to what these lads are like. If it was up to me they would be fired a long time ago! Cheers

maybe this is a silly question coming from someone in the private sector, but do these porters not have management they are answerable to? is there no-one down in the hospital who can actually get them to work? its stories like this that infuriate the private sector and no doubt all of the many hard working folk in the public service.

gandalf

Still nothing on the SIPTU website about this and they promised a response last Friday ?

http://www.siptu.ie/PressRoom/NewsReleases/2010/

In other news the Third Green Isle Foods hunger striker receives new work visa........

Come on SIPTU sugar up this porter story for us we all need a laugh

Head The Wall

bamboozle wrote: »

maybe this is a silly question coming from someone in the private sector, but do these porters not have management they are answerable to? is there no-one down in the hospital who can actually get them to work? its stories like this that infuriate the private sector and no doubt all of the many hard working folk in the public service.

Think of any dealings you may have to do with anyone in the public sector and just imagine you have a problem doing that - Who do you complain or escalate the issue to??

There was a guy on Last Word few days ago talking about bullying in the workplace, a woman texted in saying a manager in her dept (public sector) challenged some staff about their work ethic. They filed a complaint against her saying they were bullied - this is the mentality in there.

gandalf

Did a quick search there to see if there has actually been a response but nothing seems to be forthcoming yet. But these linked articles show this has been a known problem for a long time. I cannot understand why this has not be dealt with more surgically by the management there at this stage.

Inquiry over lack of hospital porter
Friday, 2 November 2007 17:30

The Minister for Health, Mary Harney, has asked the head of the HSE for a full report on an incident at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.

The problem arose last Tuesday when no porter was available to push a patient to theatre for emergency surgery. 53 porters are employed at the hospital.

The patient, a teenage girl, was suffering from internal bleeding and when a porter was paged but none was available.
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Eventually a manager and the girl's parents pushed her to theatre.

The HSE says when the incident happened 11 of the porters employed at the hospital were out sick, three were on long-term sick leave and eight had called in sick that day.

The problem appears to have arise from the refusal by staff to co-operate with the redeployment measures, which the HSE is insisting be implemented to deal with the budgetary cutbacks being imposed by the HSE nationwide.

In addition there are problems with the high levels of absenteeism at the hospital.

Minister Harney has said the lack of a porter was incredible.

She said the situation regarding lack of porter staff and the high levels of absenteeism are unacceptable.

The HSE says it is carrying out its own internal investigation into the incident.

RTE link for story

PORTERS STAGE ANOTHER SIT-IN AT LIMERICK REGIONAL HOSPITAL
28 January 2010

Porters at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle are engaging in unofficial strike action in a row over pay.

They say at least 10 porters have not received their proper wages for the third time in the last two months.

In a statement issued in the past few minutes a spokesperson says some porters have been waiting since last September to have issues with their wages resolved.

And they say efforts to meet with the general services manager today have been unsuccessful.

The porters are not carrying out any duties other than answering emergency calls.

It's the second time they have engaged in unofficial action this month.

The HSE were not prepared to comment on the dispute this afternoon.

live95fm link for story

The more I see about this kind of wasteful and neglectful activity in the HSE and other areas of the PS the more I wonder how these people can actually justify taking a wage and how they can look their PS co-workers who are doing their duties in the eye?

SLUSK

The Irish suffer from a catholic work ethic. The same poor work ethic can be observed in places like Spain and Italy where all they want to do is sit in the sun all day and drink wine.

bamboozle

deadtiger wrote: »

Did a quick search there to see if there has actually been a response but nothing seems to be forthcoming yet. But these linked articles show this has been a known problem for a long time. I cannot understand why this has not be dealt with more surgically by the management there at this stage.



RTE link for story



live95fm link for story

The more I see about this kind of wasteful and neglectful activity in the HSE and other areas of the PS the more I wonder how these people can actually justify taking a wage and how they can look their PS co-workers who are doing their duties in the eye?

it really is sickening reading these articles, hopefully someone is going to start cracking the whip down there, this type of carry on is unacceptable.

bamboozle

SLUSK wrote: »

The Irish suffer from a catholic work ethic. The same poor work ethic can be observed in places like Spain and Italy where all they want to do is sit in the sun all day and drink wine.

and the award for bizarre comment of the week goes to.....

SLUSK

bamboozle wrote: »

and the award for bizarre comment of the week goes to.....

I have been to Spain and seen how they roll. I lived in Ireland and I know how you roll.

murphaph

Bill Board wrote: »

Well before this turns into another public vs private thread, id just like to pop in and say that i work in the MWRH in limerick and i can tell ye it doesnt surprise me to see this post about sick pay. The porters down there are without doubt the greatest shower of wasters i have ever come across! While im not going to paint them all with the one brush, the majority of them are absolutely pathetic. We (nurses) ring them to bring a patient to xray or to another ward and they wont show up for 3-4 hours if they do at all. And many wont answer your call, they just hide away in their sitting room reading newspapers. It drives me mad that everyone else has a job to do and we do it well while these wasters get away doing nothing! No surprise the HSE is a sinking ship paying people who sit round all day. Ask any other staff working in there, what are the porters like and they will all say the same, ignorant, useless and disrespectful to both the patients and staff. Those responsible for hiring these cowboys have a lot to answer for aswell. This has been going on for an age, and nothing is been done about it, suppose its the same with anything thats not bought to the medias attention. The hospital is run by very poor management and that allows the porters to do as they please. Sorry about venting my frustrations, but i wanted to paint a clearer picture as to what these lads are like. If it was up to me they would be fired a long time ago! Cheers

The problem is that your unions stick up for these wasters when (eventually) an effective manager (rare in the PS it seems) actually tries to fire one of them.

murphaph

Tipp Man wrote: »

I haven't heard about that but don't doubt it

but I do know for a fact that in my local hospital that there was a dispute regarding moving bodies to the mortuary i.e. whoever was doing it was refusing to do it

So my local hospital was paying 2 funeral parlours to come up to the hospital, at all hours, and move the bodies from 1 section of the hospital to the other. God only knows how much it was costing

I really think that we have no clue about the waste, carelessness and general uselessness that goes on in the Public Sector - we only hear about the tip of the iceberg and I'd say we'd be shocked beyond belief if we knew the half of it

This is the truth. We need to see all this bullsh!t eliminated from the PS before taxes are raised one penny tbh. Funding this bottomless pit is aggravating beyond belief. The unions don't want to see any efficiencies brought in though and the unions are made up of the PS workers, so they have nobody to blame but themselves when their base pay has to be reduced instead.

Bill Board

Totally agree, unions are a complete waste of time who spend most of their energy disrupting public services and end up getting nothing done!
and thats coming from a public sector worker.
Its irratating to see unions back up people who dont do the job they are supposed to i.e. porters! again the select few clowns in MWRH Limerick and not meant as a sweeping statement.

I remember one story where a porter called in sick, another porter was called in to replace him on time and a half. However the porter covering had to go home (hurt his back, got sick, cant remember rightly) anyway the origional porter who had called in sick first time round was rang up and was asked was there anyway he could come in... and he informed them he was in the pub watching the match and was after a few pints! Guess what.. He arrived to work after the match, after a few pints and on time and a half... and that was to work his origional shift! Now if that doesnt take the biscuit. Only in Ireland ha!

Just to let ye know ive heard this story off a few different people, all told the say way. So again hard to say how true it is but been honest it really wouldnt surprise me, with the carry on in that hospital!

paraletic

bamboozle wrote: »

isnt there some bizarre situation whereby if someone needs to be dropped home from hospital by ambulance, the hospital need to ring a taxi to follow the ambulance with the personal belongings of the patient as the ambulance drivers refuse to transport these.

That is not true,

of course ambulance crews carry patients belongings (bags etc), but there is only so much room on board,

if the patient has too much stuff or wheel chair etc, there simply is not enough room, remember there may be more than one patient on an ambo,

the hospital doesn't need to ring for a taxi. it is the families responsability to take all that crap away (they probably brought it in the first place).

I have worked in the ambulance service for years, and i have never seen a taxi been called for a bag, it probably happened with some people who had enough crap to fill a ware house, and they started whinging when they were told to take some of it themselves.

goat2

deadtiger wrote: »

Did a quick search there to see if there has actually been a response but nothing seems to be forthcoming yet. But these linked articles show this has been a known problem for a long time. I cannot understand why this has not be dealt with more surgically by the management there at this stage.



RTE link for story



live95fm link for story

The more I see about this kind of wasteful and neglectful activity in the HSE and other areas of the PS the more I wonder how these people can actually justify taking a wage and how they can look their PS co-workers who are doing their duties in the eye?

The HSE says when the incident happened 11 of the porters employed at the hospital were out sick, three were on long-term sick leave and eight had called in sick that day


why is there no one sacked, that would wake them all up

donkey balls

i dont buy into the thing of employees not been sacked because there in a union i worked in two companies(private) both as a manager&employee.
we monitored the sickness levels on a dailly basis any one that was out sick had to do a back to work interveiw with a mgr,there was a few that took the p*ss and where shown the door and this was in a heavily unionised company.(we followed procedure with our HR dept)

the mgr,s in the HSE just have to do the same the union can only back an employee up so much,as for people being in unions it's a right they have and beleive me a company i worked for some time ago you would need one the way they treated their staff.