SENIOR nurses have warned the death rate of hospital patients will increase due to the Government’s cutbacks in frontline nursing staff.

MORE than €60 million will be paid out to patients who have suffered from serious medical errors in the health service this year – a massive rise which almost equals the total figure over the last five years.

PATIENT lives are being put at risk because the Government’s ongoing health service recruitment ban is forcing nurses to take on excessive workloads due to widespread staff shortages, it has been claimed.