Harney vows to tackle nursing shortage at Crumlin hospital

The Tánaiste and Minister for Health has vowed to recruit the necessary amount of specialist nurses at Crumlin children's hospital to prevent another tragedy like the death of Róisín Ruddle.

Mary Harney was responding to the publication of a report into the death of the two-year-old Limerick girl a day after her surgery was cancelled at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in 2003.

The surgery was cancelled due to a shortage of paediatric intensive care nurses and today's report criticised hospital management for failing to take measures to tackle this shortage.

"You can never say there won't be tragedies in healthcare, unfortunately," Ms Harney said today, "but I am confident that we'll be able to get the nurses we require to ensure the ICU unit is staffed."