New 40-bed hospital unit is ‘pointless’ with no nurses says INMO
The Irish Nurse and Midwives Organisation has described the building of a new 40-bed hospital unit in Tipperary as ‘pointless’ unless nurses can be sourced to staff it.
It said the HSE needs to increase wages in order to attract more graduate nurses back to Ireland to target the understaffing problem across the country before new beds come onstream.
Mattie McGrath TD has also raised concerns about the unit’s opening and the recruitment and retention of staff.
75 new staff needed, already a deficit of 35
‘I have been told by one of my colleagues that 75 new staff, including nurses, will be needed. The INMO says that at the current rate of recruitment, it will be impossible to find the staff needed to allow that unit to open,’ the Independent TD said in the Dáil recently.
‘Not only would this be a crushing blow but it would greatly increase the existing problems in the hospital, where I understand there is a staff deficit of 35 nurses. This is causing awful stress to patients and staff alike and it is unfair to them.’
Mr McGrath also highlighted the HSE’s failure to entice medical staff to return home from abroad. ‘The Government’s “Bring them Home” campaign, which was launched in July 2015, targeted 500 nurses and midwives employed in the UK. However, only 91 nurses were persuaded to return to work in the Irish public health system and a staggering 40 of them left prior to fulfilling a year’s service.
‘What is wrong? It clearly indicates that something is profoundly wrong with the current system.’
South Tipperary General Hospital is known as one of the country’s most overcrowded. It is hoped the new €6m unit – given the green light last month after a long, hard-fought campaign by local activists – will be open by next spring.
However, it’s understood the INMO will not back the development if the HSE intends to pull staff from other, already understaffed hospitals in order to run the new unit.
It is calling for the HSE to launch a fresh recruitment drive aimed at overseas staff offering improved wages.
Liz Curran, of the Southeast INMO branch, told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘More beds are always welcome, but without additional nurses to staff them, it could all be a pointless exercise.
‘The hospital has to recruit more nurses to provide safe care, otherwise we will be pulling staff off wards where they are needed.
‘Understaffing is a major problem across the country. The HSE simply cannot hire enough nurses and midwives on these wages.
‘Until the Government raises pay, I worry that the recruitment and retention crisis will only get worse.’
Mr McGrath fears that the unit will lie idle in the same way as the €21m modern unit in Cashel has due to understaffing. A spokesman for the hospital confirmed that the unit will not open unless appropriate staffing levels are sourced.
The spokesman for the South West Hospital Group said: ‘The handover for the newly constructed Modular Unit at South Tipperary General Hospital is scheduled for late spring 2019.
‘It will be opened following the commissioning of equipment and having the relevant staffing in place. HSE recruitment is ongoing. Multidisciplinary teams will be recruited to include medical, nursing, health and social care professionals and support services.’
We will be pulling staff off other wards