Almost 100 nursing vacancies but less than half of graduates get jobs

Increased spending on agency staff and the provision of 41 extra acute beds in Limerick hospitals have been cited as some of the main factors contributing to a €18.5m overspend in a Mid-West group of hospitals.

THE Department of Health has abandoned plans to bring in private management to resurrect the fortunes of the main hospitals in the West and will instead rely on the abilities of two existing senior health employees.

NURSES at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, who are staging a lunchtime stoppage tomorrow due to emergency department overcrowding&, said cases have spiralled to 1,156 over the past six months, compared to 831 for the same period last year.