Nurses: Consultant's pay cut offer shows staffing crisis

A hospital consultant’s offer to give up about €36,000 of his annual pay to employ a midwife in one of the country’s busiest maternity units demonstrated the desperate state of hospital staffing, it was claimed tonight.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said the offer by Dr David Vaughan, Chairman of the medical board of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, is a result of the failures by health chiefs to address inadequate staffing levels at the facility.

The consultant told hospital management he was concerned by the marked deficits in neonatal nursing and midwifery numbers at the site.

Dr Vaughan, clinical director at the Department of Paediatrics in the hospital, also warned he was very concerned about the effects such deficits had on the safety of mothers and babies under their care.

The INO claims his gesture highlights the unwillingness by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to put the safety of patients and staff ahead of the budgets.

It maintained that despite the Executive acknowledging a deficit of 54.8 whole-time equivalent midwives at the hospital, and vowing to employ 22, these posts have only acted to cover maternity leave and vacancies that already existed.

INO Industrial Relations Officer, Tony Fitzpatrick, said the midwife shortage within the hospital is having a devastating effect on the well-being and morale of staff, all of whom are working in excess of their contracted hours in an attempt to maintain services.

“This situation is unsustainable,” he said.

“The HSE must now either provide the additional staff required or curtail the services in that unit. Curtailment of the service would have a devastating effect on mothers in the region.”

Controls on employment have also been blamed for the overcrowding of A&E units within the Mid West Region.

The INO said emergency departments in the region were severely overcrowded due to the closure of beds in Ennis General Hospital, Limerick Regional Hospital and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital.

Staff at Portlaoise General hospital also maintained it’s a&E reached crisis point with 12 patients waiting on trolleys.

Meanwhile, health sector trade unions met senior management in the HSE today to discuss how plans to save €300m will impact on patient services.

Last week, HSE Chief Executive Professor Brendan Drumm warned some of the smaller A&E units may have to close if spending cannot be brought under control.

An HSE spokesman said the backdrop to this meeting was the two recent Labour Court recommendations on consultation which arose from the HSE’s financial break-even plan, introduced in September 2007.

“The HSE today once more confirmed its full acceptance of the terms of the Labour Court recommendations and its willingness to put in place a process of ongoing engagement with the unions,” he said.

“The meeting has now adjourned and the parties are due to meet again on March 25.”