Salaries dilemma

Any business that did not prepare to meet staffing needs in a way that would allow it to continue delivering adequate services to its customers would not have a rosy future.

Yet that is what seems to be happening at the HSE.

A shortage of vital theatre and critical care nurses will not be resolved for more than a year. Inevitably, this will mean a reduction in our health service’s ability to provide vital treatment for sick people. Of course, the HSE has had to manage with reduced budgets and will have to cope with more cuts next year. Not only that, but they cannot offer nurses, some of them Irish, working in these positions abroad packages as attractive as the ones they already enjoy.

They are not alone in this and the dilemma underlines an important dilemma. If we want international standard services we will have to pay international standard wages. The objective must be to get to that position as quickly as is possible.