Staff cap must be lifted to improve services, say nurses

SENIOR nurses have called for the lifting of the cap on nursing staff imposed by the Government almost two years ago and only adjusted minimally since.

Irish Association of Directors of Nursing and Midwifery (IADNAM) president Geraldine Regan said the cap was a very blunt instrument.

“It reduces patient care and is counter-productive because it requires hiring agency nurses to plug the inevitable gaps that develop in services,” Ms Regan told delegates at IADNAM’s centenary conference in Tullamore, Co Offaly, yesterday.

“We welcome the partial lifting of the cap by the minister’s predecessor, Mícheál Martin.

“However, this is not adequate if waiting lists are to be seriously reduced,” she said.

Another area of concern for the association is the lack of adequate acute and emergency psychiatric and social services for children and adolescents.

Ms Regan warned that many of these children are at risk of becoming dysfunctional and homeless as adults because of social and psychiatric problems.

The association also called for the appointment of an ombudsman for older citizens. “There is a lot of talk about our ‘demographic time bomb’ but relatively little is being done to defuse it,” she said.

“Older people need an advocate to fight for their rights, who can advise and, when necessary, prod the Government into action,” she said. Ms Regan also called for the extension of breast screening to older age groups as recent research showed half of all breast cancer cases occurred in women over the age of 65.