Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
NURSES AND MIDWIVES are working in “horrendous” conditions and are suffering from stress and burnout, as it emerged that more than 100,000 patients have been left waiting on trolleys in Irish hospitals this year.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has warned that staff are “stretched to the limit”, with staff shortages reported across the country.
The INMO has called for the Government to bring in measures needed to retain nurses and midwives to help address the crisis.
In analysis released on Tuesday, the INMO said more than 1,903 children have been waiting on trolleys.
This is the earliest in the year that this high a number of admitted patients has ever been recorded, according to the INMO.
The INMO has been warning of unprecedented overcrowding in 2022 since early summer.
INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said there is not enough investment in adequate staffing.
Ní Sheaghdha said the health service is now “completely dependent” on recruiting overseas nurses and midwives because of the exodus of such workers.
Midwives are being recruited from Ghana and other African countries to plug the staffing gap.
“A country like Ireland, because of its bad policy, because of its lack of investment is now going to these countries and taking their essential workers, and that, the Minister for Health has said, is a policy that Ireland will not tolerate,” Ní Sheaghdha said.
“But as late as yesterday, that situation was happening in Ireland.”
The bigger hospitals are suffering the most, particularly in emergency departments, with departments down around a quarter of staff.
“We have a new children’s hospital that’s going to open very soon. The Children’s Hospital have said to us, we know we’re not going to get staff to work in it because it’s just too expensive to live in this city,” she added.
“We have exactly the same problem in Galway, we have exactly the same problem in Cork.”
Ní Sheaghdha called on the government to set a date to bring in the new public sector pay deal.
“We say to the HSE and the government that the thing not to do now is to not prioritise paying staff what they’re owed on time, because that is essential,” she added.
“We have to look after our students so that when they do qualify, they say, ‘this isn’t a bad place to work’. They’re not saying that at the moment, and there is no evidence that that will change.
“This year we have registered just over 1,400 nurses who have qualified here and we’ve registered 3,500 from non-EU countries.
“We are forcing our own to emigrate and then going to non-EU countries and robbing them of their essential workers. There is something fundamentally flawed with that.”
The five worst-hit hospitals so far this year are University Hospital Limerick with 15,322 patients left on trolleys; Cork University Hospital with 10,107 patients; Sligo University Hospital with 6,919 patients; St Vincent’s University Hospital with 6,359 patients; and Letterkenny University Hospital with 5,366 patients.
The trade union has called for non-urgent elective care to be cancelled in public hospitals and private hospitals used for this work.
It calls for the introduction of retention measures, including provision of accommodation for essential workers such as nurses and midwives – particularly in rent pressure zones.
The union has also called for legislation to underpin the implementation of the safe staffing and skill mix framework, and the prioritisation of funding for publicly delivered long-term care in the community.
Karen McGowan, president of the INMO who works as an advanced nurse practitioner in a Dublin hospital, said that conditions are “horrendous”.
“Every day they’re fighting in the conditions that they’re in and these are real people behind these numbers, real men, women, children,” McGowan said.
“Imagine if you walked into an emergency department, what that must be like to be that person, sitting on that chair, lying on that trolley and not knowing when you’re going to get a bed or when your operation is going to be done.
“We’re witnessing people on waiting lists becoming so sick, they have to come to the emergency department and then they have an emergency operation as a result of waiting so long.
“This is horrendous for our members. It is bearing a certain amount of trauma and this is a symptom of the last couple of years that they’ve been working through and they cannot stand it any longer. They are making the decision to leave this broken health system.”
Mary Tulley, a public health nurse, said staff are “stretched to the limit” and are suffering from stress and burnout.
She said there are currently 600 nursing vacancies, with many of these in Dublin.
“There is a huge issue with staff shortages. There are 14,080 public health nurses to cover all of Ireland,” Tulley said.
“There are 600 vacancies at the moment. We are training 110 student public health nurses and that won’t even replace the nurses who are going to retire next year.
“If we have a shortage of staff in the community, there is going to be missed care.
“Without adequate staff, services cannot be provided. Clients and patients end up back in hospital because of missed care.”
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said that one in four beds that are publicly funded have not been delivered.
“Over 1,000 patients in the hospital can’t get access to home care, so that delays their discharge. So what we have now is chaotic,” McDonald told the Dail today.
“We need investment in our hospitals but also in home care and community care.”
Minister for Public Expenditure Micheal McGrath said the Government needs to increase capacity of the healthcare system.
“It is the case that we are being faced with an unprecedented number of presentations.
“In our acute adult hospitals, we’re seeing more older people and more sick presenting, and it just underlines the need for us to continue to increase capacity.
“I accept the point we have to build up the permanent capacity.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
My daughter is in last year of nursing . After their experiences during placement . 60% of starting class has dropped out over last few years and of the reminder approx 80 % of class plan on leaving immediately after graduation.
My god what are we doing here !!
What will it take for them to fix the health service once and for all? Clearly, they don’t mind people dying as they are fulltime writing cheques for families in our courts every day.
I witnessed two incidents with family members in hospital in the last few weeks and it’s frightening to think that people in those hospitals call what they do “caring”. You’d be better off clocking out and book your appointment with St Peter before you go into those establishments called hospitals.
@David Corrigan: Paying nurses more. That’s what we’re told usually fixes it. However, nurses comprise 48,814 of the 154,566 HSE staff, are they the only ones working in “horrendous” conditions and suffering from stress and burnout? Are the other two thirds of the HSE staff unaffected by all this?
Yes, nurses are a major part of the HSE but they don’t work in isolation, there are an enormous number of other staff who work in conjunction with them, from admin, doctors, clerical, support staff and health care assistants. All of whom are working in the same conditions, are equally stressed and burned out but unlikely to be held up for special attention.
@Boyne Sharky: spot on
@Boyne Sharky: iv heard of missing the point but this takes the biscuit
@David Corrigan: they don’t want it fixed they want u to go to 1 of three mata private clinic and get health insurance.
@Michael Nolan: there mates
@Boyne Sharky: Talk about missing the point…there are way too many clerical staff and admin who get days off with no trouble..they leave at 5 pm on the dot when others inc our daughter is supposed to leave at 6 but rarely leaves before 8 pm…..
Recruiting nurses from Ghana while leaving nurses trained here emigrate to Australia, Canada and the like because they won’t pay nurses a decent wage for the work expected of them. This government is a disgrace!
@James Reardon: I’d say the conditions are tough here as well. If a nurse can get hired in a better setup and be sure of the support of a more humane healthcare system, why wouldn’t they leave? I’m also reading that they can hope for a home of their own in other countries and not here. I think we in Ireland owe thanks to the hard working nurses from Ghana. I’m sure their job is hectic here.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: I think you’re completely misinterpreting what I said.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: I’m slamming the government for not investing in our healthcare so these nurses don’t have to emigrate to seek better conditions, been told by a few people their daughters look after 4 patients on their rounds, could be 5 if they’re short number on a shift, here it can be up to 15 patients per round. That it absolutely disgraceful.
@James Reardon: I should’ve noted said daughters are nurses in Australia.
@James Reardon: I completely agree. It’s not only wages here, it’s also the fact that people can’t afford to buy a house here anymore. It’s working conditions in overcrowded Irish hospitals. We should be able to take pride in our national healthcare service. If larger countries can run a decent healthcare system, Ireland could do much better.
No hospitals or other essential services should be built without building accommodation for staff at affordable prices. Of course then our landlord TD’s wouldn’t be happy.
Sad sad sad.
Don’t forget the clown who set up the basket case that is the HSE !! Yes the 1 and only and our very own Mehole Martin
@Alan McDonagh: was it not Mary harney?
@t0️⃣Ⓜ️Ⓜ️1️⃣3️⃣b: I stand open to correction but wasn’t it Martin and then Harney took over as health minister in 2004?
I know it shouldn’t be down to nurses to fix this and it would cause havoc in hospitals but walk out. A mass walk out by all.
It’s chilling to read that so many patients could be home now if they could rely on home care. Not to mention people on waiting lists.
@Fiona Fitzgerald: We used Home Instead a few years ago for my father in law and it worked for 6 months…but I am now told that they have no staff…their mileage remains the same even tho the cost of fuel has rocketed….so no wonder people are stuck in hospital if there are no support networks available when they go home
Of all the failures of the last few governments, the way they have all treated the nurses is a disgrace!! They had us all out clapping for them during the pandemic and then just totally forget about them. The poor devils who take this vocation should be looked after finally. It’s no wonder they are falling over each other at the airports. We’ll look back in a few years and the damage will be done.
@Will: I would say the damage has already been done, my wife(midwife) sister 8n law(paediatric) and brother in law(ambulance) have already steered our/their children away from this shambles of a vocation.
Nearly every shift my wife is receiving WhatsApp messages from management looking for 2,3 or 4 staff.
The psychological stress before even getting to work is crazy.
Should not have taken the pay rises a few years back when they went on strike over conditions. To me management are useless and afraid to make change because of the unions which also represent them, health service is a vicious circle of a mess
With all the refugees coming in we needed massive recruitment to an already overwhelmed hospital system fair play to the government playing a blinder here again
It was a shambles before Harney took over ,no Gov has fixed it . All take the money and run.
I tought Enda Kenny was going to sort that out.
Why do they work these very long 3 x 12 hour shifts…? I’m sure they would much prefer a 5 x 8 hour shift pattern.
Every employee is fed up with how the HSE works.its a very slow wheel.the entire country needs hospital upgrading and beds.you need to cater to all the staff, not alone the nurses.
It’s a multidisciplinary team of people.
It would make sense for the HSE to invest in small housing estates to retain staff,so that the staff could save for a mortgage.a few more doctors would not go to waste either.
The 12 hour shift is to make the most out of what staff they have, also if they hire ample staff, they have to pay their pensions.in their book its cost effective to have a 50 year old for 16 years as opposed to pay an 18 year old for 48 years work.you could have shorter hours if you had the numbers to rotate staff on a roster, like in a factory.i would favour a 3-cycle shift, for the overtime pay.the work -life balance goes out the window, regardless of working hours.
have your say