HSE jobs embargo hits patients and staff

I had reason to require a visit to the Eye Clinic of Cork University Hospital recently. I took my place in the queue.

In due course I was called, details taken and asked to take a seat in the adjacent corridor. I could not believe the numbers of people who were lining one wall of this very long corridor. Nurses were working flat out.

Some patients seemed to enter and leave consultant’s rooms several times, I can only assume these were the people whose eye problems were most urgent. We all sat in quiet resignation waiting for our time to arrive.