Nursing unions warn of hospital bed closures

NURSING unions are forecasting further hospital bed closures as health boards struggle to stay within budget in the face of soaring overtime bills.

More than €15 million in overtime has been paid out by health boards to nursing staff for the first six months of the year. The pay-out does not include the major Dublin hospitals such as Beaumont, St Vincent’s and the Mater, who have their own payment structure. The Northern Area Health Board (NAHB) had the highest pay-out of €3.6 million.

INO representative Colette Mullins said overtime costs were set to go through the roof because of a growing dependency on agency nurses resulting from a Government cap on recruitment to the health service.