HSE pays €2.7m in overtime to mid-west nurses
New figures provided by the Health Service Executive (HSE) in response to a Freedom of Information request show 15 of the top 20 recipients are working in the mental health sector — with nine of the top 10 in Clare.
A staff nurse working at Deilginish, Shannon, received the highest amount at €41,103, with another nurse at the same location receiving €37,292.
A nurse working at the acute psychiatric unit in Ennis received the third-highest amount at €35,780.
In response to the figures yesterday, Psychiatric Nurses Association general secretary Des Kavanagh said that from an economic point of view, it was nonsensical to have a staff moratorium in place and be paying high amounts of overtime.
“It is no way to run a health service,” he said.
“If the service had enough staff, there would be no overtime. I would hope that the new government would end the moratorium as it doesn’t make sense.”
Mr Kavanagh added: “You have the ridiculous situation where nursing graduates from the school at the University of Limerick (UL) are having to go abroad for work and they can not work in the midwest because of the moratorium.”
He added that a nurse starting out would receive a salary of €27,000.
“Surely, this is more economical than paying large sums of overtime.”
He added that health managers are constrained in their functions and are not being allowed to manage.
Asked why there was a particular high amount of overtime in Clare, Mr Kavanagh said: “There has been a large number of retirements in Clare in the past few years and these staff have not been replaced.”
Mr Kavanagh added that morale among staff in Clare was low for a variety of reasons, including staff being subjected to a lot of criticism and services not being properly resourced.
Separate figures provided by the HSE show that paramedics in the region were paid a total of €148,131 in overtime last year.
The figures note one paramedic was paid €13,117 with a second paid €12,411.
