Cuts have wounded health system and recovery will be slow

Our hospitals are at 94% of capacity. We have lost 2,000 beds and 5,000 nurses. Short-term thinking has created a long-term problem, says Ray Kinsella.

Austerity has scarred our health system. The scale of the cuts in funding was unprecedented, akin to botched, unsupervised surgery.

Two thousand beds were decommissioned, of which 1,600 were within the acute system. Five thousand nurses and midwives were forced out — to retire or to emigrate.