HSE to cut 3,500 staff

By Lloyd Mudiwa. Even as it was reported that the HSE turned down the vast majority of applications for its three-year incentivised career break scheme, it has come to light that the health service will need to cut employees by 3,500 in the space of only six months in order to meet its staff ceiling target. The Executive, which turned down the applications because the staff involved were in vital frontline services, had fears the targeted reductions would not be achieved even before the processing of applications under the scheme was completed. As of the end of April, the health…