Healthcare workers deserve better pay and respect

FOR all those who have spent any time in hospital, I know you appreciate the work that healthcare assistants do.

Our hospitals are full of assistants supplied by agencies that are paid for by the HSE.

We work long shifts day and night and are the lowest paid workers in the hospital. We, as agency workers, are individuals and have no one voice to speak on our behalf. If we are sick we remain unpaid and struggle to make ends meet. I am highlighting this because most of us work with patients’ wellbeing in mind as we are trained to do. We put our own problems behind us and do the best we can for our patients. Our patients appreciate what we do. It would be nice if the HSE and agencies would appreciate it and pay us appropriately.