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Over 1,300 nursing and midwifery posts now vacant in acute hospitals “Recruitment ban has got to go,” says INMO
As trolley figures once again hit record high levels at Uni- versity Hospital Limerick, the INMO has called on the HSE to make a high-level intervention. With 81 admitted patients waiting without a bed at the hospital on Monday, Sep- tember 23, 2019 – a number which matches the record-high number of trolleys recorded in any hospital in the country, which also occurred in UHL on April 3, 2019 and July 11, 2019. UHL is consistently the most overcrowded hospital in the country, with over 10,000 waiting without beds in 2018 and, as we went to press, the hospital was set to record its worst September on record. In excess of 1,300 funded nursing and midwifery posts are being left vacant in Ire- land’s acute hospitals due to the HSE’s recruitment ban, recent figures from the INMO revealed. Across staff nursing and midwifery in acute hospi- tals, 7% of funded posts were vacant, with 1,251 vacancies out of 17,623 posts. There are also 66 unfilled nurse/midwife management roles in acute hospitals, bringing the total number of vacant posts to 1,317. In addition, there are 420 vacancies in the commu- nity health services, which covers care of the elderly, public health and intellectual disability. Midwifery staffing is being hit the hardest, with one in six (17%) of funded staff mid- wife posts now vacant: 284
2019, the number of midwives had gone down to 1,403. The INMO points to the HSE’s recruitment “pause” as the key driver of unfilled posts. The union has met with the HSE to call for curtailment of services until staffing reaches safe levels. The recruitment pause has been used as a reason not to offer graduating nurses and midwives full-time, permanent posts. However, following inter- vention by the INMO, over 1,100 students have now been offered contracts, with officials working to resolve the issue in the remaining workplaces where problems remain. INMO general secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “The figures are stark: the govern- ment is refusing to fill frontline healthcare posts. “Make no mistake: this will
on a n o r d i n a r y Mond a y. “It’s time for direct, high- l e v e l HS E i n t e r v e n t i o n . Services should be curtailed immediately to clear this overcrowding. “At the root of this is under- staffing. There are 100 unfilled nursing posts at the hospital, and the HSE is not allowing management to recruit grad- uating nurses and midwives. The recruitment ban has got to go. “Our members are looking to winter with a sense of dread. If this is what’s happening in temperate months, things can only get worse as accidents and illnesses increase in colder weather.” lead to compromised patient care and staff burnout. “Midwifery is being hit particularly hard by the gov- ernment’s recruitment ban. One i n s i x pos t s a re l e f t vacant. Even if we filled all of these posts, we would still fall far short of the safe staffing levels promised by the government. Midwifery vacancies disproportionately affect women. This is yet another unwelcome example of government’s approach to women’s health. “The recruitment ban has got to go. It breaches agree- ments with the INMO, drives up agency costs, puts frontline staff under extra pressure, and puts patients’ lives at risk. “Until we can get staffing up to safe levels, we are calling on the HSE to scale back services and close many non-essential wards.”
INMOgeneral secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha: “The figures are stark: the government is refusing to fill frontline healthcare posts”
vacancies in a workforce of 1,687. In 2017, the HSE had pledged to increase the number of mid- wives from 1,409 by 210 by the end of 2018 to ensure safety levels. However, as of July
Call for direct, high‑level HSE intervention at UHL
The INMO has called on the HSE to make a high-level inter- vention at the hospital to: • Curtail services to clear the overcrowding • End the recruitment ban, which has led to 100 unfilled nursing vacancies in UHL alone • Immediately offer full-time, permanent contracts to grad- uating nurses and midwives, many of whom have still not been offered roles at UHL • Open a review into the ongo- ing trolley overcrowding at the hospital. INMO assistant director of industrial relations Mary Fog- arty said: “This is a matter of public safety – 81 patients on
trolleys is what you’d expect after a natural disaster, not INMO assistant director of IR Mary Fogarty: “At the root of the overcrowding is understaffing. There are 100 unfilled nursing posts in UHL and the HSE is not allowing management to recruit graduating nurses and midwives”
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