Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

Yesterday, the Irish Nurses Organisation called on the Health Service Executive to take immediate action to resolve the ongoing nursing shortage being experienced by Kerry General Hospital. According to the organisation, the current shortage is so acute that hospital management depends on existing members of staff to work on their days off to ensure that some level of staffing is maintained. Despite the goodwill and co-operation of staff, wards are understaffed on a daily basis and, therefore, the level of care that can be given to patients is potentially compromised.

Kerry General Hospital is so under-resourced that it cannot conceivably continue to deliver the present level of service. Services will have to be curtailed if a commitment to provide additional nursing posts is not given. The industrial relations officer of the INO, Mr. Michael Dineen, said yesterday:

Our members within KGH are under severe pressure to deliver an appropriate level of care to the patients in their charge due to staff shortages. If the present position continues it will only exacerbate the difficulties being experienced as nurses will inevitably leave rather than continue to work in the current environment.

I fully support the INO's call for action to be taken in respect of this serious problem. It is unacceptable that nurses at Kerry General Hospital have to work under such stretched staffing arrangements. The nurses' level of commitment has been extraordinary, considering the demanding circumstances and constant pressures of their work environment. Services at Kerry General Hospital will be curtailed if the Health Service Executive does not provide the necessary additional nursing posts immediately.

The level of understaffing at Kerry General Hospital stems from the failure to take the need for a relief component into account when staffing arrangements were being made at the hospital. I understand that a hospital's nursing staff relief component is usually 25% of the total nursing staff level, which is 408 in the case of Kerry General Hospital. When one considers the need for a relief component, therefore, the hospital should have between 490 and 500 nursing staff. I understand that provision is made for a relief component at all other hospitals.

There will be no student nurses working at Kerry General Hospital this year, because the nursing diploma programme has become a four-year degree programme. Therefore, fewer members of staff will be available to cover for absent colleagues. A number of temporary staff have been made permanent. The relief component should be put in place to ensure that sufficient numbers of staff are available to cover annual leave, sick leave, maternity leave etc.

The hospital saved a significant amount of money by failing to provide for the relief component when it was determining staffing levels. As a consequence, however, it has to make considerable overtime payments to approximately 45 or 50 nurses each day. I understand that the recommendations contained in an independent review produced by Ms Betty Brady in November 2001 were never implemented. While an implementation group was established in 2001, it ceased to exist the following year when various changes were made in the 2002 budget and it became clear that it was impossible to invest extra resources in staffing.

There are major problems in the accident and emergency unit at Kerry General Hospital. The hospital's maternity unit needs to be extended. All sectors of the hospital are under pressure. I am sure the Minister of State will give us the HSE's line that the hospital has its full complement of nurses, but that is simply not the case. The INO would not have made such a strong statement if it were the case. The nurses at Kerry General Hospital are totally frustrated. On their behalf, I call on the Minister of State to act immediately to ensure that there are adequate staffing levels at Kerry General Hospital, just as there are at every other hospital in the country.

See this speech in context