Health staff recruitment is 'a disaster' which is adding to hospital crisis

Taoiseach Micheál Martin officially opened a new state-of-the-art 40-bed modular unit based on the hospital campus of Tipperary University Hospital on Friday, where he met Ailish Grant, physiotherapist and Doreen Kiely, clinical nurse manager. Picture: Patrick Browne

The recruitment process for nurses and other health staff is “a disaster” and is only adding to the crisis facing hospitals this winter, it has been claimed.

New figures show that despite HSE estimates it needs to recruit 8,000 new staff every year to balance out retiring staff and other leavers, just 10,816 have been taken on since December 2019.