Hospice staff call for resignations

The hospice has been embroiled in controversy

A number of staff at the Northern Ireland Hospice have called on the charity's chief executive and management council to step down to be replaced by an independent body.

Thirty-six staff, including two medical consultants at the charity, made the appeal in an open letter to Health Minister Des Browne.

It follows a long-running dispute and power struggle between the managers and former managers of the hospice, which the staff said had made their working conditions "intolerable".

The charity cares for adults and children with life limiting illnesses all over the province.

Chief Executive Tom Hill has stood down during departmental review

The staff have asked Chief Executive Tom Hill and the current members of the Hospice Management Council to stand aside so that the Department of Health could appoint a new independent management team.

The health minister has already announced that his department is to carry out a review into internal issues at the Hospice which would investigate the difficulties it has faced over the last two and a half years.

On Thursday, Mr Browne said the department would put together an expert team and draw up its terms of reference.

After the organisation's annual general meeting on Wednesday, Mr Hill announced he was temporarily stepping aside from his post to allow a review to be carried out.

Staff walkout

There was a mass walkout of hospice staff just before the end of the general meeting held in Belfast.

There had been calls for the meeting to be deferred until an inquiry was carried out.

In a statement released after the meeting, the hospice renewed its call for a review to be carried out by the Department of Health.

Tom Hill was sacked, then re-employed by the hospice.

Last month, he said he was giving back some of the £80,000 damages he was paid for unfair dismissal and then began work as the charity's chief executive.

His suspension, then sacking, as the charity's administrative director caused two years of turmoil within the organisation.