Ward will partially reopen after nurse posts are filled

A 24-BED surgical ward at Kerry General Hospital in Tralee, closed since mid-January due to a nurse shortage, will partially reopen later this month, it was confirmed yesterday.

This is because a number of vacant posts have been filled, according to the hospital’s general manager, Margie Lynch.

“It is anticipated the Clonfert ward will partially re-open by mid-April. The remaining beds will re-open as soon as sufficient posts are filled,” she told Kerry North Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris, in a letter.

Deputy Ferris said that when the closure of the ward was announced in January it was stated that it would re-open in March, but he welcomed the latest announcement.

He said it was a scandal that a ward that cost the taxpayer over €600,000 to refurbish was allowed to close in the first place.

“This has placed serious pressure on the functioning of the rest of the hospital, particularly the A&E ward where people are being left waiting on trolleys because there are no beds available,” he claimed.

“According to a recent independent staffing review, it was concluded that there was a requirement to recruit an extra 130 nursing staff just to maintain appropriate service levels. Unless there is a significant increase in funding from the HSE, it is hard to see how the hospital will be in a position to recruit this number of extra staff,” he said.

Mr Ferris claimed HSE management seemed more concerned about contradicting the Irish Nurses Organisation’s Trolley Watch figures than they were about the real problems that existed within the hospital.

Meanwhile, Ms Lynch said a rigorous recruitment campaign was continuing, nationally and internationally, to recruit the necessary nursing staff.

A number of overseas nurses had been recruited to date and some of these took up duty on the week beginning March 17, while others were undergoing health and visa screening in India.

Ms Lynch also said places on a “return to nursing practice” programme being held in May were being advertised with the aim of attracting nurses who had stopped practising back to the workplace.