Reilly confronted by nurse forced to emigrate

The reality of a recession-era health service came home to roost for the Health Minister yesterday, but, for once, talk of trolleys, chronic under-staffing and yet more budget cuts did not take centre stage.

After telling the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation conference to effectively keep doing more with less, Dr James Reilly was confronted by a nurse graduate “forced” to leave to find work abroad.

Oliver Allen, who graduated as a general nurse in late 2010, said he and thousands of other Irish nurses want to come home to treat Irish patients.

Instead, he said the roughly 1,600 nurse graduates this country produces every year are being told to either go on the dole or emigrate.

“I’m working in London now for a year and a half at this stage, and I’d like to come back and work here,” the 26-year-old from Ballyfermot in Dublin, who took annual leave to travel to Kerry and specifically confront the minister, told reporters after Dr Reilly spoke to him away from cameras and microphones.

“It’s just very sad because there’s lots of Irish nurses in my hospital alone [Queen’s Hospital in London] and many of them want to come home. We were all forced to go and we just want to come back.

“So I asked the minister will the embargo be lifted for nurses to come back to work here. He said it will be ‘eased’,” said Mr Allen, who was given just a three-month contract in St James’s Hospital’s emergency department after graduating.

“You just don’t know how long this will take. I know things are bad here and we need to save money, but I think it’s wrong to save it in healthcare... Why do I want to come back? I just miss home. My girlfriend is here, she’s nursing in Crumlin, and I’ve got my family here as well.”

The minister had earlier told the conference Ireland does not want to train up nurses and doctors only to then see them leave for other systems.