‘Patients put at risk over nursing shortages’

Nurses at Cork University Hospital have raised concerns over patient safety due to staff shortages at the hospital.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) claimed there were currently 78 vacant posts at the hospital, and that nurses in the affected wards were working longer shifts and not taking breaks to compensate. The HSE has refuted the claims.

INMO industrial relations officer Mary Rose Carroll said she did not want to name the wards affected but said they were “acute medical and surgical wards with highly dependent and sick patients with complex needs”.