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.