Your work place doesn't sound like the HSE my wife is working in where the number of appointments that can be handled in a day must be within the limit agreed with the union, they are not permitted to schedule more to address a backlog.
Is there broad support for the current Public Sector strikes?
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Sister Sara
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Its not actually. It is adequately staffed but not over-staffed. You cannot plausibly read anything into the previous comment and come to an assumption of over-staffing.
I'm sure you are more than aware of contingency planning? priortising? scheduling etc, just part of the normal course of business organisation.
The industrial action was in advance notice. Management set about minimising disruption to services and prioristing scheduled payments to their customers, which as I understand, there has been no reported disruption.
Customers with scheduled appointments were notified in advance and either given an alternative date or requested to contact offices to re-schedule, again depending on the nature of the appointment priority was afforded to serious cases over cases with less urgency. This is disruption but it was minimised to greatest reasonable extent.
Disruption was caused to those that intended to walk-in call to offices that day but with no prior notification. How disruptive it was for them is unknown.
Where I work it is not public facing. Like most well run organistions priority was given to tasks considered more critical and time-urgent and tasks considered not critical were addressed over the coming days as time and capacity allowed.
All normal routine stuff for business operations.
JoeRoberts
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So there would have been nothing to do if not catching up. Overstaffed.
Sister Sara
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That may well be the case but not necessarily a cause of the union? I think you mentioned your wife is a nurse? So there are other organistions like the https://www.nmbi.ie/Home/ set about providing the standards and ethics of the profession.
I'm not very familiar with them but providing for patient care is a priority and to provide good patient care healthcare staff should not be unduly pressurised to work beyond certain limits over a pro-longed time. Unfortunately, as the Irish Cancer Society claims, 1 in 2 nurses feel pressurised into working additional hours. To what extent those hours amount to is not clear. I'm sure we can all understand putting in the extra-mileage when its really needed but if that is a constant then that is not good for staff or patients. It may explain why things like this happen
Hospital apologises to woman for cancer diagnosis delay
Unions are probably useful insofar that they can support their members who feel they are being unduly pressurised into working additional hours.
Sister Sara
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No, just a re-arranging of the furniture.
Tomorrow I will do the school drop-off, go to work, do a 5km run in the park, then go home and make the dinner. On Saturday I'll do the grocery shopping and put on some washing.
Wait!! There is no chicken or milk or eggs in the house and the weather forecast is bad from 4pm, meaning traffic delays and disruption!!
Instead, I will do the school drop-off, go to work, grab some groceries after, try beat the bad weather and traffic and make the dinner.
On Saturday I'll do the 5km run....something like that.
The only job f any union is to get the most money for the least amount of work for their members. That's their job and to be fair, judging by the waiting lists in hospitals, they are very good at it.
The function of such bodied is to police the standards within the industry. They should not have a representative function.
Sister Sara
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You are blaming unions for waiting lists?
Not https://www.nmbi.ie/Home/ who set the standards in the industry of staff and patient care, such as limiting the amount of patients/appointments that can be attended too by staff?
You think the Irish Cancer Society are off the mark when they repeatedly highlight shortcomings in staffing and resources?
You think trade unions should stand out of the way and allow additional pressure be placed on staff to work more hours? Possibly leading to a drop in standards and errors with serious consequences such as Hospital apologises to woman for cancer diagnosis delay ?
This is what you want?
Yes. Their resistance to improvements in work practices, labour mobility and the deployment of technology wastes money and causes delays and deaths. In my opinion their leadership has blood on their hands.
No they don't.
No, within the existing grossly inefficient system there will always be a shortage of resources. It is not possible to remove shortcomings in an inefficient system or process by increasing employment numbers. Read up on Brooks’s Law
Feeling under pressure to work more hours and actually working more hours are two different things but yes, everyone should feel under pressure to work more hours occasionally.
Are you suggesting that the incorrect reading of Michelle Craughwell's scan by a Radiologist was due to pressure to work more hours?
In fact there are AI tools in use that would have found her issue. I don't want to start a medical conversation but this is a good example of where implementation of new technology can save lives.
I want the best and therefore the most efficient deployment of our healthcare resources so that society is best served by that service. That's all. I have little interest in listening to virtue signalling and whinging from well paid people the vast majority of whom work in pleasant and low stress environments and all of whom work in very safe environments.
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Not a nurse, but it is the union who monitor that agreed targets including number of appointments are not exceeded,