Recruitment cap kills off health strategy, warn nurses

HEALTH chiefs have claimed that the Health Strategy is dead in the water following the Budget decision to cap recruitment to the public services.

Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) general secretary Liam Doran said the Government couldn’t possibly hope to implement the strategy without extra nursing staff. “Who is going to man the extra 3,000 beds promised under the strategy? There can be no increased bed capacity if the staff aren’t in place to provide the care.”

The strategy has promised an extra 3,000 beds by 2011, the first 709 to be in place by the end of 2003.