Health system ‘fails immigrants’

MAJOR improvements are needed in the healthcare facilities available to over 1,000 unaccompanied child asylum-seekers living in Ireland, a nursing expert said yesterday.

The annual conference of the Irish Association of Directors of Nursing and Midwifery, being held in Dublin, yesterday also heard warnings about possible racism among medical professionals.

Eilis Hayes, a paediatric clinical nurse specialist, said there was a need for the provision of better health screening facilities for asylum-seekers, especially for all child immigrants, who account for 24% of the refugee population in Ireland.