Issues around the health service’s recruitment freeze need to be resolved as it is impacting patient care in hospitals , Stephen Donnelly has said at the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) conference in Dublin.
“I’m acutely aware that the hiring embargo, whilst it was necessary because of thousands of staff that were hired for whom there was no funding, is impacting on the ability of our clinical teams and our nursing teams to be able to do the job they want to do.
“So I want to see a resolution to this as quickly as possible,” adding that the issue is being discussed with Cabinet colleagues at present.
“What Government has to do is consider is that there was a record amount of funding provided for hiring new staff, 6000 new staff but 8000 were hired. That is something that we are still we are still resolving,” he said.
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The Minister of Health denied the timing of the announcement on Thursday of a new assessment of emergency department services in the midwest was an election stunt but again highlighted a substantial increase in staff numbers already implemented at University Hospital Limerick while contending there is a problem with the productivity levels being achieved by consultants.
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“Let’s be very clear: the hospital that has had the biggest increase in funding in the country is University Hospital Limerick,” he said. “The hospital has had the biggest increase in staff in the country is University Hospital. Nearly 1200 more staff that are in that hospital than just four years ago.”
It is still short 230 nurses, the union says, although the Minister contested that figure, arguing there were a number of issues involved including “absenteeism”.
Consultants’ productivity, he said, was also a problem, not just at Limerick but across the system.
“The single biggest part of the waiting list the national waiting list is people waiting for their first outpatient appointment with a hospital consultant. We are tracking very carefully the number of outpatient appointments per consultant and unfortunately, in many hospitals, the numbers are falling.”
He said he had spoken with one national clinical lead who spoke of 40 percent drop in the number of appointments being worked through teams in his area during Covid and a subsequent failure to restore pre-Covid numbers.
“I’m engaging very closely with the consultant body and the HSE on this,” said Mr Donnelly. “Some of it is due to lack of the available outpatient clinics and that’s something we’re working on but there are definitely opportunities to increase the number of patients being seen for a given level of resource.”
In his speech to the conference, meanwhile, the Minister said he was fully committed to the implementation of agreements on safe staffing levels in hospitals.
On Thursday the conference passed an emergency motion calling for hospital wards to clearly display both the agreed number of nurses required to provide safe staffing and the actual number rostered to work.
Mr Donnelly said he was working to ensure that the process of reaching agreed levels across the system are met and that further progress will be made over the rest of this year with the staffing of between 400 and 500 agency nurses roles.
He also said delivery of the terms of the recently agreed public sector pay deal was a priority, meanwhile, describing delays in processing the increases due as “unacceptable”.
“I am aware of the very understandable frustrations over how long it has taken to be paid,” he said. “It will be back paid, which is fine, but that’s of little comfort to people who are waiting for it, particularly when you see it being paid in other parts of the public sector.”
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