HSE recruitment freeze to end tomorrow – Gloster

A recruitment freeze at the HSE is to end tomorrow, according to the organisation’s Chief Executive Bernard Gloster.

The recruitment freeze was introduced by the HSE in October last year.

It was extended in November to include all categories of staff, with the exception of consultants, doctors in training and 2023 graduate nurses and midwives.

However, earlier this week the Government announced that the HSE was to be given an extra €1.5 billion to plug a hole in its finances for this year.

Next year, the HSE will be given an extra €1.2bn to meet the cost of existing levels of service.

Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week programme, Mr Gloster said the additional €1.5bn is permanent money that goes into “the base of the health service.”

He said that before this week he was concerned about 4,000 “essentially unfunded” posts, but thankfully those posts are now “funded and secured”.

Mr Gloster also said that despite the embargo, more staff were recruited than left the health service.