Nursing staff backlog shuts beds

With a backlog of more than 2,300 nurses awaiting registration, nursing home operators have called on the health minister to put the crisis top of the agenda at today’s meeting of the Emergency Department (ED) Taskforce.

Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) has written to Minister Leo Varadkar warning that beds are now being closed because of the sector’s inability to recruit adequate staff.

Tadhg Daly, NHI CEO, said the situation would cause chaos in the country’s EDs over the winter season because beds would not be available in the community forcing longer hospital stays, with a knock-on effect on hospital admissions and, consequently, ED trolley numbers.