Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

On the issue of nurses, they make up the largest number in the health care system at 35% of the workforce. We have the highest ratio of nurses in the health system, not just registered nurses, with 15.5 per 1,000, the highest in the OECD. In the workforce there are 12.2 nurses per 1,000. In Canada that figure is seven, across the EU it is approximately 8.5 and in the UK it is eight. We have a lot of nurses in the health care system.

As I have said previously and not just with regard to nurses and other allied professions, we need different patterns of working and different skill mixes. We need people working as part of teams and longer days from some of the allied professionals because patients do not just get sick between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. All of these issues must be addressed in the context of reform of work practices in the health care system. Otherwise the reform will not work.

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