‘Hiring ban may have to be lifted to avert A&E crisis’

THE Government may have to lift its public sector recruitment ban if the crisis facing emergency department & services in the Mid-West is to be averted, junior minister Jan O’Sullivan has warned.

The Labour Party’s former spokesperson on health has said it was “inconceivable” that a region with a population of 361,000 could be left without 24-hour emergency hospital cover.

The junior minister at the Department of Foreign Affairs was reacting to reports that the emergency department at the Mid Western Regional Hospital faces closure at night time from next month because of a shortage of doctors.