HEALTHCARE WORKERS HAVE expressed their frustration that the Health Service Executive filled certain roles via international campaigns while the recent recruitment freeze was in place.

A HSE recruitment freeze, which was put in place as a cost-saving measure, was in effect from October 2023 to July 2024.

A number of healthcare workers had hoped they would be offered certain positions when the freeze was lifted last month. However, some have since found out that certain roles were filled by international applicants during the freeze.

Some roles were exempt from the recruitment embargo, and international recruitment can also still take place during a freeze.

Thirteen Health and Social Care Professionals (HSCPs) were hired via international recruitment pathways from October to July.

HSCPs work in areas such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, counselling and psychotherapy, optometry, social work and radiography. One HSCP working in Dublin told The Journal she and others had been “bypassed” for jobs by international candidates during the recent freeze.

The Journal asked the HSE why certain roles were filled by international candidates, rather than workers already on panels for jobs.

A spokesperson said: “International recruitment is considered where our own domestic recruitment activity failed to result in a qualified and competent candidate for particular roles.”

They said the 13 HSCPs were appointed across both community and acute settings. Some workers who started roles during the recent freeze may have been offered their roles prior to the recruitment embargo, they added.

However, The Journal has been told by some staff and management that international candidates were hired for certain roles which could have been filled by people already on panels, describing this as “a loophole” used to recruit people during the embargo. 

When the freeze on recruitment was lifted last month, the HSCP working in Dublin said she was hopeful she would be offered a role via a panel she was placed on last year.

However, she was “horrified” and “in shock” to find out that certain positions had since been filled via international recruitment, while she and others were already on panels.

‘Horrified’ 

In the HSE, many jobs are filled via a panel system. Once the interview process is complete, candidates are placed on a panel in order of merit.

The highest-scoring candidate is first on the panel; the candidate with the second highest mark is second and so on.

Panels typically remain in place for at least a year. Candidates are offered jobs, in order of their position on the panel, if and when they become available.

The HSCP who spoke to us said she was placed highly on a panel for a role in Dublin last year, shortly before the recruitment freeze began in October.

Since she graduated, there have been two recruitment freezes in the HSE. These embargoes affected her job progression and, as a result, she started working in the private health sector despite wanting to remain in the public system.

Noting that the recruitment embargo was “all about cost-saving”, she questioned the logic of hiring people abroad as it is typically much more expensive than hiring staff within Ireland.

Recruiting an employee from abroad is generally more expensive than hiring a worker from within Ireland due to the relocation package offered to people, as well as additional costs such as the ‘finder’s fee’ paid to the recruitment agency involved.

“International candidates have been heavily compensated by the HSE to travel to Ireland to commence posts that had in fact already been recruited for and panels of successful candidates were already formed, but [they were] never actually offered the roles,” the healthcare worker told us. 

She said she understands why managers recruited via international campaigns during the recent freeze as they badly needed staff. However, she doesn’t understand why people on panels were not offered jobs first. 

Workers on panels ‘bypassed’

The HSE confirmed that 13 HSCPs were hired internationally from October to July.

A HSE spokesperson told The Journal that international recruitment is “only ever considered where our own domestic recruitment activity failed to result in a qualified and competent candidate for particular roles”.

“Health and Social Care Professionals practice within a regulated environment, this narrows the available suitable global candidate pool.

“International appointments represent an extremely low percentage of the overall profession,” the spokesperson said, adding: “It is only when the national pool has been exhausted that the HSE recruits from the international market.”

However, the HSCP we spoke to said this does not reflect her experience and that of some of her colleagues. She said:

Those of us waiting on panels for promotional posts have been bypassed by those recruited internationally during the embargo period.

“Like myself, many experienced staff members have left HSE to find promotional opportunities in the private sector as a result.”

She told us that, despite efforts to retain new graduates in the sector, the fact that international recruitment was used to fill senior HSCP vacancies during the embargo means the HSE has “failed to retain existing staff with many years of experience”.

The HSE spokesperson said the retention of Irish graduates – particularly HSCPs, nurses and midwives – is “fundamental to the delivery of services”.

“To this end, the HSE has assured all 2024 HSCP and nursing graduates offers of permanent employment to fill funded vacancies.”

The HSE spokesperson said that, to support recruitment of HSCPs from the international market, a “competitive relocation package” is available.

This includes a placement fee of 10% of the relevant salary, as well as flight costs and financial support to assist in finding accommodation for the first number of weeks.