Frontline nurses and doctors warn of insufficient staff to cope with backlog

Concern has been expressed in recent weeks about the rising level of Covid-19 transmission in hospitals.

Nurses and doctors working on the frontline will today warn the Oireachtas Health Committee there is not have enough staff to meet the growing backlog of non-Covid care and will call for improved protection in hospitals.

The three largest unions – the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, the Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) – will discuss access to testing, staffing and pay with the committee.

The IHCA represents 3,200 hospital consultants, about 95% of the total.

A survey of their members carried out last week found 54% worried that “moderate or high staff absentee levels” due to Covid-19 are negatively affecting the health service.

And in a finding which is sure to worry patient advocates, almost 70% of its members said persistent issues with staffing will have a “moderate or severe” impact on care for non-Covid patients.

One in five consultant roles are not filled on a permanent basis, and with more than 800,000 people on waiting lists, the union will ask for pay issues to be urgently resolved.

School closures are another key issue, now that only crèche-age children of essential workers have access to services.

The IHCA will say: “It is vital that primary and secondary schools are reopened for the children of all HCWs as is the case in the UK and Northern Ireland. Also, financial support should be provided to pay for the increased child-minding needs that have arisen due to reduced school hours.” 

Concern has been expressed in recent weeks about the rising level of Covid-19 transmission in hospitals. The HSE has put this down to the high levels of community transmission, however, the IHCA will point to specific factors behind this.

They will say: 

Our members also expressed concerns about lack of regular testing and screening of staff, poor ventilation in crowded areas and clinical areas, poor security and incursions from visitors not wearing PPE.” 

The INMO will raise the issue of pay for student nurses and midwives, something which hit the headlines many times during the pandemic but is not yet resolved.

They will also criticise the lack of regular testing for asymptomatic healthcare workers and delays in rolling out universal face masks and higher standard masks.

They will say: “Governments and the HSE over the last number of years have many reports indicating the staffing and capacity pressures of the health service. Unfortunately, these were ignored.” 

Sinn Féin TD for Waterford David Cullinane said on Monday the nurse’s call for improved PPE especially in light of the greater transmissibility of the UK variant should be heard.

He said: “It is quite difficult to maintain a 2m distance in older hospitals. Nurses and midwives make up about 50% of all the Covid infections.” 

And the health committee will also hear about the increasingly problematic situation for public health specialists from the IMO.

These doctors work on the contact tracing frontline, advising and tracing complex Covid-19 outbreaks.

A pay deal had been expected in July to give them parity with consultants but was put on hold because of the pandemic.