Sir, – I write to you in advance of the imminent INMO industrial action in our healthcare system. Nurses and midwives are looking not for pay rises per se, but rather pay parity and pay restoration. It seems obvious that if this Government had properly managed the fiasco of the National Children’s Hospital project there would be enough money to restore the pay of nurses and midwives and give these highly qualified degree-educated healthcare professionals pay parity with their degree-qualified allied healthcare professionals and colleagues within our healthcare system. The outrageous financial overrun on the building of the National Children’s Hospital demonstrates that the malaise in the Irish healthcare system is administrative and bureaucratic and not clinical! It’s time to bring back matron and give control of running our healthcare system back to the nurses, midwives, doctors and allied health professions who know what they are doing.
The administrators have had their day. Pay our degree-qualified nurses and midwives an equitable salary to their allied health professional degree-qualified colleagues and, while we are at it, we should pay a Dublin weighting to all health professionals also.
The outcome of this impending industrial action by nurses and midwives will speak volumes about how we the citizens of this Republic value those who care for the health of the citizens of this State in the shadow of commemorations of 100 years of Dáil Éireann in this decade of centenaries. – Yours, etc,
PAUL HORAN,
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Assistant Professor,
School of Nursing
and Midwifery,
Trinity College
Dublin,
Dublin 2.