Fears over shortage of nurses in west region

AS management in the HSE West prepare to meet today to discuss a raft of job cuts among temporary staff, a report on the region indicates potentially dangerous shortfalls in nursing numbers.

The report, prepared by Carmel Hoey of HSE West’s Nursing and Midwifery Planning and Development Unit, looked at the impact of the Government’s recruitment and promotion embargo on nursing and midwifery services in the west.

It found that while just 9% of whole-time-equivalent nursing positions were vacant by December 2009, it was 30% in some areas, most notably mental health services. It also found 67% of all vacancies are from frontline positions.