Irish Examiner view: Is nursing post funding just a sticking plaster?

Recruiters are seeking out Irish nurses to fill posts abroad.

It is universally acknowledged that the frontline staff of our health services deserve more support in their work, which is often carried out in truly testing conditions. 

Thursday's announcement from Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, of a €25m allocation in funding for 854 additional nursing posts in HSE hospitals, could hardly be more welcome. Or more timely. 

Elsewhere, we learned that almost three-quarters of intern nurses and midwives have said they are considering leaving Ireland after receiving their qualifications, according to a new survey from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

The same survey found that almost 95% of respondents said their work was having a negative effect on their psychological wellbeing.

This is not an encouraging pincer movement for any workforce.

When the majority of those who should be coming on stream as employees in healthcare are pondering their options abroad, while almost all of those who are already working in the sector find their work has a negative effect on them, it is clear that decisive action is needed.

And not just the kind of decisive action we are already seeing from overseas recruiters. This newspaper has detailed the aggressive overseas recruitment, particularly from healthcare providers in Australia, which has focused on Irish healthcare staff.

Those recruiters are leveraging the uncertainty among new nurses and midwives about working in Ireland to entice fully trained staff out of the Irish health system.

There is nothing underhand or illegal in their actions, and the argument could be made that their recruitment is serving some purpose as a de facto exposure of the need for reform of pay and conditions in this area.

The difficulty for the Government is that such reform takes time, a commodity always in short supply when it comes to the challenges facing the health service. However, if that reform is not undertaken then announcements such as this week’s about the extra nurses are merely sticking plasters.