What does the Secretary General of the health department do all day, anyway?

StevenToast

Tubridy is paid out of the public pocket......

And is far worse than any civil servant

Montage of Feck

There is a great documentary series on the matter called "Yes, Minister".

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118542864#Comment_118542864

I didn't offer a solution to anything.

If you were one of Watt's direct reports, and you had just seen your boss get a 40% increase because the role in health is apparently so complex and stressful, you'd be a fool not to pushing for the corresponding 40% increase for yourself. You haven't a snowball's chance in hell of getting it, but it will actually make it less likely that abuses like this are agreed in the future.

Packrat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118545273#Comment_118545273

The crazy thing is that in the insider banana republic you'd probably get a good portion of it rather than stopping the gravy train for the managers and politicians.

It's in nobody's interest bar the private sector tax donkeys to stop the abuses, and we clearly don't matter.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118545993#Comment_118545993

Have the others in Dept Health got corresponding increases?

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118536873#Comment_118536873

I actually think that is a huge advantage.

The Health Service has been run by insiders for far too long. It is time that proven public service managers from outside the HSE got in and attempted to sort it out. For too long, the interests of staff insiders like nurses and doctors have been put before the interests of patients. With someone like Paul Reid, there is a chance that that will change. The real risk is inertia and resistance to change from within the HSE, particularly from those around him. A second risk is that the likes of the INMO will keep whinging and keep being listened to by opportunistic politicians. It doesn't help that there are many politicians around - Louise O'Reilly being a prime example - whose default is protect the staff. The staff of the HSE are second only to teachers in having their interests represented in the Dail.

Brucie Bonus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118546865#Comment_118546865

Context. Literally mentioned he'd no prior health experience. Never claimed it was good or bad.

So nurses have been stacking the HSE deck to keep themselves in the clover they have become accustomed to? Do you know anything about how tough nurses have it?

Hopefully Paul Reid looks to making people accountable for the Kerry CAHMs scandal that went in for years despite it being complained about. Throwing money hits the tax payer and let's those responsible off the hook.

iffandonlyif

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118538235#Comment_118538235

Well said. Just to put numbers on it, salaries for partners at the top consultancy firms in London are upwards of 500k before bonuses, which can double earnings. Civil Service salaries lag considerably behind.

The reason the top finance and consulting firms pay so much is that when the value of their contracts is so high, the smallest of improvements make a big difference. The exact same applies to the civil service. If a highly paid secretary general at a €10bn department can improve efficiency by 1%, that more than justifies their salary.

The question is whether they do improve it. I’ve little doubt that the CS is not at the cutting edge of efficiency and that those at the top benefit from a preference for internal promotion, but I still think they are likely highly competent and can command higher salaries in the private sector.

Dempo1

Maddening this latest farce, the Trip to Dubai with Donnelly. The expo is primarily a Trade event what the SG and minister are doing there is beyond me. Enterprise Ireland by all means should be there.

The Salary story is just breathtaking and the Justifications for same utterly bizzare, Paschal used spurious nonsense about the importance of managing the vaccine roll out which I believe had started before Watt even arrived at the department, then he said the work involved overseeing such a large department required the high renumeration. I suspect many Frontline workers looking on are seething.

Now it seems other SG will be seeking pay parity given all SG normally on same pay scale , seems to me a can of worms has been opened up here.

The bizzare spectacle of Paul Reid , who reports to Watt, earning close to €150k more PA is just extraordinary and that doesn't include the 20k motoring expenses Reid claimed despite being chauffeured around by Army personnel in a sponsored BMW 🙄

Scandal after Scandal, Failure after Failure and yet the two top people swaning around Dubai , I'm just surprised Paul Reid not there sunning himself also.

It's disgusting and outrageous.

Brucie Bonus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118547058#Comment_118547058

And we've people blaming nurses.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118546865#Comment_118546865

His predecessor Tony O'Brien was also an outsider. Brendan Drumm was a medic, but was also a HSE outsider.

Garryneal

Delighted to see Tubbs and Co compared to Watts and Co. RTE and Dept of Health/HSE are abominations and are strangely symbiotic these days. Tubbs and Co. seem to think Cancer, sick children and any form of ill health or hard luck stories are entertainment for Licence Payers who want a bit of light relief on the telly and not something that will depress us. I totally object to being forced to pay a Licence Fee for the rubbish RTE puts out. As for Watts and Reid, the Irish Health Service is an abomination and theres no other word for it. The same day that Watts monstrous pay rise was made public, the horrors of the Kerry Childrens Mental Health Servces came to light. The latest in a never ending litany of disasters caused by highly paid clowns in management positions that they are unfit to occupy, I dont mind high salaries if theres accountability attached to them, in Irelend there never is. No heads will roll in Kerry. No heads ever roll in the HSE, despite the numbers of people they have killed. There are hospitals in this country that people are afraid to go into. They might come out in a coffin, and many have. Will Watts and Reid solve this? not a hope. The culture of embracing incompetence and rewarding it has been embedded in the HSE right back through the Health Boards and before them, the Local Health Authorities. I worked in a Health Board and after 20 years of watching skulduggery, wanton waste and jobs for the boys, I ran out the door. Clowns who were pulled into jobs and promoted because they knew someone, or had been groomed, or who dont have the intelligence to creatively problem solve, and therefore wont show up the inertia of their superiors, are all in high positions now and have never had a sensible idea in the lives. This is whats running our health service. A few witch doctors from Angola would be as good, and a lot less expensive on the tax payer. For such a small country we are a disgrace, despite all the billions spent down the years, we are as bad as ever. And Watts wont change it, and I dont think he`s even expected to. A waste of money at any salary. Just like Tubbs. And I dont even want to think about TUSLA, a mongrel offspring of the HSE, they are in a league of their own and defy description.

Mrs OBumble

Very harsh on Angola there.

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118537180#Comment_118537180

That's probably not too far off per-minute-worked pay for your average teacher 😋

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118546953#Comment_118546953

Yeah, I do happen to know quite a bit about nurses. Outside of emergency departments and ICU, it can be quite a cushy job.

Maybe you can fill us in with your experience.

Brucie Bonus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118548869#Comment_118548869

I pay attention to nurses when they raise worries about the service such as being over worked and how people have to be left on trolleys. If they have it so handy I wonder why they are always asking for improvements to the system.

Always nice to see how nurses, low paid workers and the homeless get looked down upon.

I can't take anyone who thinks nurses have it cushy seriously. Its like pretending there's no housing problem because you heard of Margaret cash.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118548436#Comment_118548436

Only if you want to fool yourself about the amount of non classroom work involved

is_that_so

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118548911#Comment_118548911

Nurses are vested interests in the health system, just like doctors and admin staff and there are times when they just push their own agendas. The trolley count is a perfect example of this. It is an unacceptable scenario but data that does not explain the myriad reasons why it happens. Those reasons include deficits in primary care, lack of stepdown facilities, regular visitors who need a bed and a level of families dumping older relatives in hospital.

Personally think nursing is a very noble calling but that doesn't mean that some are not as excellent as others and that they don't indulge in petty grievances that the unions will back. I generally have had excellent experience of nurses but have also heard my fair share of anecdotal stuff about them and some it is not great at all.

Brucie Bonus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118549230#Comment_118549230

I have only heard nurses complain about being over worked and the plight of patients due to lack of beds.

The nurse to bed ratio doesn't take patients without a bed into account.

Its all very well to call nursing noble but then dismiss their complaints as petty grievances. Its the equivalent of applauding front line workers then not paying student nurses who had to assist front line.

It seems we are to believe the HSE is a mess and nurses have it cushy, while the top men head off to Dubai for an expo during a pandemic and during the latest health crisis in Kerry reported and ignored for years.

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118546865#Comment_118546865

The HSE isn't fit for purpose, their 'self policing' function has been captured by those being policed, and in the last year alone, more senior level administrators were hired than senior consultants. Highest administrative load percentage-wise in Europe.

No health service should be run by an MBA like Reid. Just look at the recent Kerry mental health scandal. At best, one junior doctor might get some consequences, but usually it's just the taxpayer paying the poor mistreated victims. No one loses their job. No one lost their job over Savita Halappanavar ffs and she was murdered by HSE incompetence and maliciousness. The doctor who killed her is still operating in Ireland. Love how the HSE types in Galway messed with the records, too. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/10/irish-doctor-abortion-law-inquest

salonfire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118548869#Comment_118548869

Everywhere outside the Emergency Department is cushy.

If a patient cancels a procedure or appointment, what do you think happens? Next in line on the waiting list is contacted to fill the slot?

No. That slot is unfilled and another lunch break for the staff.

That's never mentioned of course.

cuttingtimber22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118547058#Comment_118547058

Paul Reid gets paid twice as much as the Chairman of the Revenue, and the Sec Gen of the Department of Finance. bonkers.

Dempo1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550248#Comment_118550248

Interesting (screaming match) discussion on Saturday with Katie Hannon, Hapless Damien English (FG) Trying to defend the infensible. Gov TD's keep repeating this nonsense that they had to attract the best Talent for such a Roll , seems they think such Talent only available within the Senior echelons of the Civil Service. There's going to be a Poo Storm when all other Secatary General's within the civil service start putting their hands out for pay parity.

Gerald Craughwell (Senator) raised an interesting point, TD and Senator private sectaries put in for a pay rise recently (Starting salary just above €20k) they were told because of contagion it wasn't possible 😳 Government about to find out what contagion is from very senior civil servants.

The shenanigans around watt's salary and indeed the €80k increase he so graciously and allegedly forfeited until again, allegedly recently disgraceful.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550151#Comment_118550151

I have never heard of any worker ever complain of being underworked, so what is your point?

The nurse to bed ratio is a huge issue when it comes to patients without a bed. If we could reduce the nurse to bed ratio, we could have more beds with the same number of nurses. That is so obvious I didn't think I needed to explain it, silly me.

Brucie Bonus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550501#Comment_118550501

You are assuming all the nurses are lying?

Who looks after such things and will they be off on another expo junket?

Nurses responsible for the CAMHs Kerry situation going on for years?

Funny how its always the frontline workers causing all the problems not the well paid lads flying to Dubai.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550233#Comment_118550233

I and two family members have gotten last minute calls for appointments following cancellations in the past two years.

is_that_so

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118550151#Comment_118550151

People can have lots to say without ever seeing the full picture. The INMO, IMO and any random consultant will have people believe they know exactly what's going on. Not sure anyone fully sees all of it but it is clearly a very tangled mess and really not just about magic beds in hospitals solution.

Brucie Bonus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118553264#Comment_118553264

True but I'm talking about interviews with a&e nurses speaking on the heartbreak of the environment for themselves and patients. They seem sincere to me.

Also I imagine not all unionised workers are work shy liars.