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"Nursing shortages an indictment of Government failure," says McGrath
Deputy Spokesperson for Finance, Paul McGrath said today (Friday 12th October) that the Government's four years of failure to tackle nursing shortages will seriously compromise any future Government's ability to deliver improved services and will further delay the implementation of a new health strategy.
McGrath accused the Government of seeking to use its long-delayed and yet to be published health strategy as a platform for re-election and not a blueprint for reform.
"The recent ESRI report showed that over the lifetime of this Government, 4,000 administrators and managers were recruited, but only 2,000 nurses. In percentage terms, there are less nurses working in the health service than there were in 1990.
"There are no beds closures because of lack of managers. There is no cancellation of surgery because of too few administrators. This proves, if proof were needed, that this Government has failed to appreciate that without nurses, there is no health service.
A few simple facts will illustrate this:
- In 2000 there were cumulatively 1,810 bed closures countrywide resulting in the loss of 83,323 bed days. 38% of the bed closures were due to nursing shortages. That means that 687 beds were closed in the course of the year because there were not enough nurses to care for the patients.
- In the Midland Health Board area 22 orthopaedic beds were closed in late June because of nurse shortages. While some of these beds reopened in early September and the last of them in early October - nonetheless there was a total loss of 1,787 bed nights in this Orthopaedic unit because of nurse
shortages. This is particularly disappointing when we note the very long waiting time (up to 2 years for hip replacement) in this unit.
- The acute shortage of midwives means that mothers and their babies have to leave hospital after only one or two days.
- The recruitment of highly qualified nurses from overseas is the only thing preventing meltdown in our hospitals.
- Nurses working in the health services are under increased pressure because of the nursing staff shortages, because of lack of beds, and because of increased attendance at hospitals. Stress levels increase. Nurses - such as those in Clonmel and elsewhere - refuse to compromise on high standards of patient care. They hear that the health budget has doubled but they perceive no improvement in the management of the health services.
"The Government's four year failure to plan, failure to read the signs, the failure to make contingency plans and the failure to tackle the nursing shortages in time will seriously damage the ability of this, or any other Government to deliver reform of the health services."
"The grand strategy, promised by the summer, much leaked of late, but still not unveiled, seems to promise great changes. The fact is that that is all it can do - promise, not deliver. The next Government, and the Government after that will implement it. This is a three Government strategy. The current Government have proved themselves incapable of action. They will attempt to disguise their incapacity by cynically using the unveiling of the grand plan on the eve of a general election. The sole objective of this delay is to garner publicity. Their actions owe more to opportunism than to excellence or equality."
"The junior partners in Government have not been immune to the growing crisis. Fearing that they will implode in the Fianna Fáil vacuum, the Progressive Democrats discovered patients only recently and made a hasty run for cover with a one-size fits all solution to the hospital waiting lists."
Delaying the preparation of the Health Strategy until it can form part of next year's manifesto, is, McGrath said, a classic case of Fianna Fáil role reversal - putting politics before people, and particularly before patients.
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