The moratorium on recruitment in the public sector is making it difficult to provide excellent care to patients, the head of the Health Service Executive has admitted.
Cathal Magee, who was speaking after addressing delegates attending the second day of the annual conference of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation in Kilkenny, said there was almost €1 billion less in funding for the HSE this year and this was a challenge.
He praised nurses for their hard work, professionalism and dedication to patients day and night and said he acknowledged they often provide care in a difficult and demanding environment.
His comments came as nurses criticised the level of staffing on some wards which they claim compromises patient safety.
Mr Magee said notwithstanding these challenges, it was important all stakeholders in the health service, including doctors and nurses, other professionals and their unions, work together to provide the best services to patients within the available resources.
He said traditional models of care were struggling to keep up as demands grow. In the first three months of this year alone, the number of attendances at hospital emergency departments had increased by 7,000, he said.
He added that the current system was still not working well enough for the patient, as evidenced by current waiting list figures and the daily toll for the numbers of patients on trolleys in emergency departments.
All sides needed to collaborate to come up with solutions rather than seek to advance their own sectoral interests, he said.
Asked if he would miss the HSE board after the Minister for Health James Reilly prevailed upon its members to resign last week, Mr Magee said the decision was flagged by Dr Reilly as an important initial step in his ambition to implement the programme for government. The board itself and HSE management fully supported the programme of change, he said.
Meanwhile nurses attending the conference expressed opposition to any attempt to place extra beds on wards to alleviate overcrowding in emergency departments.
INMO deputy general secretary Dave Hughes said overcrowding other parts of the hospital was not the solution and would result in more patients getting infections and could contribute to more patient deaths, as it had in the UK.
People who didn’t speak out about the risk of putting extra beds on wards were like those over the banking sector who never shouted about the risks of the way banks and developers were carrying on, he added.