ANNUAL REVIEW master Final3a - St Vincent's University Hospital

St. Michael’s Hospital
Human Resources
2007 was a difficult year for HR. As a Hospital we continued to experience increased demand for services
while we still tried to operate within our tight employment ceiling. We also had the Nursing ‘campaign of
action’, followed by a ‘recruitment pause’ imposed on us in September, combined with continuous and
increased information demands from various sources for more reports and more information. All these
factors contributed to a very difficult balancing act for the HR Dept given our limited resources and this
challenged us throughout 2007. Thankfully we continued to experience a low turnover rate among our staff
and low absenteeism, which mitigated the effects of the ‘recruitment pause’.
In October the first SVHG Annual Service Awards were held in the ERC at St. Vincent’s University Hospital
and 40 staff from St. Michael’s Hospital received an award for 20 years service.
The HR Forum meetings with Department Heads and Line Managers continued to be popular and were well
attended. These regular meetings take place throughout the year, are hosted by the HR Department and
help managers to exchange information and to share experience in dealing with staff issues and to learn
about and discuss best HR practice and HR developments within our Group.
Our investment in Training and Development focused on extending Team Based Performance Management
in line with national policy and in supporting Continuous Professional Development and training in People
Management Skills. Over 250 staff participated in over 700 training and development days.
We continued to monitor HR activity across a range of indicators. We also continued to collaborate with our
HR colleagues at SVPH and SVUH on policy and practice development and in harmonising existing HR
policies and practice.
Some of our longer serving staff retired in 2007, including Rosaleen Walsh (Radiography Services Manager),
Finian Hayes (Senior Medical Scientist), Betty White (Medical Laboratory Office) and Pat McNally (Nursing
Manager). The Catering Department will miss Josephine Murphy and Hilda Denny who also retired, as did
Ruth Matheson, our night-telephonist/receptionist and Angela O’Callaghan (Phlebotomy). To each and every
one of them we say thank you for your service and dedication to St. Michael’s Hospital and to our patients
and we wish you all a long, happy and healthy retirement.
Return to Contents
79