Staff drain continues apace

I refer to your recent article (Irish Examiner, Jan 8) where Minister Kathleen Lynch claims that she successfully fought new mental health staff delays.

The 2014 HSE National Service Plan states: “There are approximately 457 new posts currently in the recruitment process relating to prior-year, ring-fenced funding and a further 250-280 new posts that are planned for recruitment in 2014.”

There is a clear admission in this statement that over the past years the promised numbers to be recruited never materialised on the ground. Also, in any given year approximately 250 staff will retire from the mental health service. However, in recent years the number of retirements have dramatically increased due to low morale, cutbacks and disillusionment of staff within a crumbling service. Therefore, in 2014 the recruitment of 250-280 new posts will be offset by the same approximate number of staff retiring.