Major health unit may be switched to Antrim

Major health unit may be switched to Antrim

14 December 2011 - by DAVID TELFORD

THIRTY finance staff based at the Downshire Hospital in Downpatrick have expressed concern about controversial plans to relocate them to Ballymena.

Under a proposed radical shake-up of administration services across the Province’s health service, the local staff face the prospect of a 110-mile daily round trip to Ballymena next October, if a series of proposals are implemented.

The Business Service Organisation (BSO) has drawn up plans for a major reshuffle of a

raft of services aimed at saving an estimated £100m over the next decade.

It wants to develop a new finance department responsible for processing all financial payments for the Province’s health trusts in Ballymena, which will result in the 30 local staff having to move.

Predictably, staff, trade unions and local politicians have reacted angrily to proposals to reduce the number of health service administrative posts across the Province from 500 to 400. The BSO is also proposing to slash the number of administrative locations from 20 down to just four.

A large number of the staff currently based at Bernagh House in Downpatrick are working mothers and have warned the added travel expenses will hit them hard, as will the significant increase in their journey times to and from work.

The Downpatrick staff, who currently process around 14,000 invoices a month for the South Eastern Trust, have appealed to local politicians for support and hope to have a meeting with them early in the New Year.

Rosie Bonner, the manager of the local finance staff, said the BSO proposal will result in the Downpatrick office being subsumed into a larger department in Ballymena which will be responsible for processing payments for all health trusts.

“We are all shocked at this proposal as we had hoped the plan to develop the Downshire Hospital site as a public sector campus would have resulted in the new amalgamated finance unit being located here,” she explained.

“We are still examining the detail of the proposal contained in the consultation document which has been published. Our plan is to digest its content over the next few days.”

Rosie explained that just over two thirds of staff at the Downpatrick office are women, some of whom work reduced hours due to family commitments. She said some of the female staff are the major breadwinners in their home.

The office manager confirmed staff have contacted all local politicians and hope to meet with them in early January. She also said the South Eastern Trust is being very supportive to staff at this time.

The manager of the Downpatrick office said staff expect that after Christmas steps will be taken to see if anyone is eligible for or would wish to take early retirement.

She added: “Staff are very concerned at what’s being proposed. Asking them to move to Ballymena is a huge ask. We also plan to keep in contact with the local Trust which is going to try and redeploy staff who don’t want to move so far away.

“The Trust is trying to work with us as much as it can and is sympathetic to our plight. It has been supportive towards us and we are grateful.”