Health retirements ‘won’t hurt patients’

Health Minister James Reilly says patients should not suffer as a result of staff exiting the health service.

He accepted, however, there could be problems if too many people left the service and if the situation was not properly dealt with. “That’s self-evident. It doesn’t mean it is going to happen and I am going to make sure it doesn’t happen,” he said.

Mr Reilly, who was speaking to reporters in Dublin yesterday, said the HSE had assured him it had a contingency plan. “We have a dynamic contingency plan — it has to be dynamic because the information changes,” he said.