Nurses call emergency meeting on overcrowding

FIVE years after a review of staff numbers was carried out at Kerry General Hospital (KGH) at a cost of more than €12,000 to the taxpayer, a second audit is to take place.

This comes as nursing staff prepare to hold an emergency meeting because of continuing staff shortages. The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) has warned patient care will be comprised at the hospital unless services are curtailed.

Yesterday the INO said staff shortages were “so acute that they pose a daily challenge to our members in their efforts to deliver a safe and appropriate level of care to the patients in their charge.”

INO spokesman Michael Dineen said an emergency meeting for the affected nurses would take place on Thursday “in order to formulate a response which will ensure safe staffing levels.”

However, a statement from the Health Service Executive (HSE) Southern Area blamed the staff shortages on “a higher level than normal of illness amongst nursing staff.”

The statement said this had placed additional demands on nurse management to source replacements. It said it was staffing policy “to replace absent staff where replacements are available.”

The HSE claimed every effort had been made by the management of KGH to have a full complement of nursing staff available. This included advertising for temporary staff, deferring of career breaks and granting of flexible working time.

The HSE said management and unions, under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission, had agreed to a full staffing review at KGH. This process is due to commence on February 1.

However, the INO, which proposed the review, remains sceptical, claiming the audit carried out in 2001 was never fully implemented because of the subsequent public service employment ceiling introduced by then Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy in the December 2002 Budget.

The INO also claimed the 2001 review had not distinguished between locum cover and permanent staff at KGH.

Mr Dineen said they were concerned it would take another six months before the review formally identified a staff deficit. He said neither was there any commitment that the HSE would make up any staffing shortfall on foot of the review.

A spokesperson for the HSE said it was not possible to say if extra staff would be appointed until the review had been carried out.

Staffing problems at the hospital have been ongoing, with the INO claiming management at times depend on staff to work their days off. Mr Dineen said an additional 80-100 nurses are needed at KGH.

There is also unrest at Navan General Hospital following a HSE decision to transfer five junior doctors to Drogheda from January 1. The Irish Medical Organisation claims services in the surgery department will have to be cut unless more junior doctors are taken on. Talks with the HSE are ongoing.