Patients to feel cold of HSE freeze into next year

THE effects of the HSE’s recruitment freeze are likely to be felt well into next year with ward closures, longer waiting lists and more hospital patients on trollies, according to a leading nurse manager.

Patient care is also being affected by the cutbacks, president of the Irish Association of Directors of Nursing and Midwifery, Barbara Fitzgerald, said yesterday, adding she was “disappointed” with the lack of movement on the recruitment issue by Health Minister Mary Harney.

And the recruitment freeze could also have industrial relations consequences, she warned.

Speaking at the association’s annual conference in Kilkenny, Ms Fitzgerald said that Ms Harney had little to offer when she addressed delegates on Thursday night. “The minister gave us no joy as a result of the embargo, she didn’t say funding would be forthcoming from the Government.”

She criticised the HSE for the lack of consultation with nurse managers prior to the start of the recruitment freeze in September and refuted HSE management’s original assertion that front- line patient care would not be affected.

“From a director of nursing point of view, our biggest concern is that this is going to impact seriously on patient outcomes and patient care over the coming months,” Ms Fitzgerald told the Irish Examiner.

“I would anticipate an increase in the numbers of people waiting on trollies in the accident and emergency departments, I’d also anticipate that we may have to look at particular closures or concentrating our resources more tightly into areas of patient need. There will be longer times for people waiting for surgery and we’ll have to find other solutions. Some of that is in the Government’s hands.”

Ms Fitzgerald predicted that, if the recruitment embargo stretches into December, it could be up to eight months before hospitals and care centres will catch up on filling staff vacancies. “The association members are very disappointed in the context of a country that is doing so well, that we have been hit with this, suddenly and very surprisingly.”

Heading towards winter and higher amounts of people using front-line medical services was of particular concern to nurse managers, she said, adding that if the “crisis in funding” drags on, there could be “industrial relations implications” in the health system.

“I would hope that talks and discussions at top management level will find resolution before it gets to that stage.”

She described as “disappointing” the fact that management within the HSE “doesn’t see us as an important group to engage with” before taking such a step as a recruitment freeze.