Don’t blame frontline medical staff for absenteeism

I was very impressed recently when I was sent by my GP to the Emergency& Department of Cork Mercy Hospital.

I handed the letter given to me by my GP to the reception office and was directed to take a seat in a nearby waiting room. Five minutes later my name was called out by a nurse who was reading my doctor’s letter.

She took me to the cubicle and did some tests after attaching me to an electronic machine which began churning out reams of paper. She then took me to another room and told me that the doctor would come soon which he did after a few minutes. He did a physical check as he had already read what was on the scans of paper and told me that I was ok and gave me a letter for my GP.

The whole operation took less than an hour and shows how efficient and dedicated our medical frontline staff are. The nursing staff are a mixture of young and old and they all looked lovely and brimming with health. I doubt if it was they who are contributing to the high rate of absenteeism in the HSE and the public sector in general. Figures released to the media show the high rate of absenteeism across all public sector departments and the damage it is doing. What is the Health Minister doing about it? Are our absent workers affected by a contagious disease for which isolation is the only way to prevent it from spreading?

Richard Prendergast

Rathcormac

Co Cork