Nurses group brands loss of healthcare staff ‘a national disgrace’

AS nurses desert the health service at almost twice the entry rate, the Irish Nurses’ Organisation has called for immediate improvements to pay and working conditions.

In its pre-Budget submission, unveiled yesterday, the INO said 9,000 Irish trained nurses had left to work abroad in the past six years. In contrast, Irish employers had succeeded in recruiting just 5,000 nurses from outside the EU. The INO said it was “a national disgrace” that Ireland was losing “much needed professionals” because of poor working conditions.

“The INO is specifically calling on the Government to reverse the mass emigration of Irish trained nurses to other countries because Ireland does not value them properly,” said INO general secretary Liam Doran.