Understaffed wards are like war zones… the big risk is people could die
ADUBLIN midwife has slammed the Government’s ‘short-sighted’ focus on the cost of giving nurses a pay rise instead of realising that lives are being put at risk in hospital conditions likened to ‘war zones’.
Kate O’Halloran, 35, one of thousands of nurses who took to picket lines across the country on Wednesday – and who is preparing for another two days of action this week – said there has been a ‘radical decline’ in working conditions over the last two years. This is largely due, she said, to skilled nurses and midwives choosing ‘safer’ working environments overseas.
Figures obtained by this newspaper show that some 20,000 nurses have emigrated in the past decade.
The Phibsborough resident, who has been a midwife for 15 years, told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘We never expected to be getting rich doing this job. We also knew there would be unsocial hours and strange shift patterns. What we weren’t expecting was to be doing nights every two weeks instead of every six or seven or that we’d be doing a 12- or 13-hour shift without a break that we don’t get paid for.
‘Taking your break means a patient won’t get something because there’s literally no one else to do it or you won’t get to go home until hours later.’ She said junior nurses have had to take on senior roles without credit, pay or acknowledgement.
‘There’s only a small, select number of people at my skill level who are still in the profession and even fewer that are in the profession full time.
‘This time last year I was into my ninth week of 11 weeks of night duty – one week on, one week off. Most people are working a huge frequency of shift patterns that they weren’t working a few years ago.’
Although Ms O’Halloran receives what might be described as a ‘liveable wage’ it is significantly less than the pay of physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
‘I don’t know how some of my younger colleagues are doing it. They’re handling scenarios that are complex and far more befitting of a senior position. They’re doing so amazingly well within their skill mix, with huge stress on them and without any recognition or title because if they don’t do it, no one will.
‘It’s leading to massive burnout. These graduates have this enviable education and training. All they need is to come into an environment that allows them to thrive but instead they’re coming into an environment that’s more like a war zone.’
The Government argues that to submit to the demands being sought by nursing unions of a 12% pay increase across the nursing and midwifery sector would cost €300m.
Ms O’Halloran argues that the real cost of failing to invest in nurses will be lives.
‘The Government has to give us the tools to do our job properly. Unfortunately, it doesn’t want to pay whatever it is that’s being quoted. But if it doesn’t, the cost will be human beings.
‘The Government seems to be hoping that if this goes on long enough we’ll lose public support and that maybe we’ll just capitulate and go away but we’re standing together – we’re united.
‘We know we’re accountable for the things we do for patients and the things we don’t do for them, and the things we need are more team mates.
‘We’re fire-fighting constantly and no one wants to be the nurse or the midwife that, on their watch, something critical happens because there aren’t enough people. So naturally people will go where it’s safer to work. They can have a good career and a decent wage and work normal safety conditions.’
After protesting during the week, Ms O’Halloran said the outpouring of public support was overwhelming.
‘They came to the picket lines with gloves, food, and coffee. The amount of car beeps and people coming up to us – we were blown away. We want this for our families and loved ones. We’re fighting for this for the betterment of the profession and the betterment of our patients.’
‘All this pressure leading to massive burnout’