West Kerry hospital's peninsula location makes it harder to recruit staff, says department

A 'targeted campaign' is running aimed at nurses and care assistants who have local connections and may wish to return to Dingle

There has been an ongoing campaign focused on the need to make the West Kerry Community Hospital, which opened in 2010, fully operational. Picture: Google Maps

Challenges faced by the HSE in recruiting staff in rural locations are exacerbated in Dingle because it is a peninsula, the Department of Health has told councillors.

But there are hopes that a new "local" approach which sees friends of the peninsula's community hospital trying to recruit nurses and others with local connections may bear fruit.