Cuts threaten ability to provide safe patient care

The ability to provide safe patient care will be further compromised as acute hospitals make do with almost €250m less in funding this year, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has warned.

INMO general secretary Liam Doran said there was no way the latest round of cuts could be achieved by efficiencies and new ways of working. “These reductions will hurt,” he warned yesterday.

While a patient’s critical needs would be met, standards would drop in other “small” ways because nurses were just too busy and short-staffed.