Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that the Minister of State understands the plight of the staff and patients in SUH. The management have made promises and are working with unions and the nursing staff to try to resolve this issue, but so far it has delivered very little. The email referred to was written at the end of July. I received another one yesterday. It stated:

Last weekend was a weekend that none of us wants to see again. There were too many horrific traumas with negative outcomes. There were 6 staff nurses on night duty for some of these and there were nights where they didn't even get a break all night. Not even a cup of tea to try to mentally process or prepare themselves for the next patient.

No profession should have to do this sort of thing or put up with this kind of situation.

It further stated, "We are in a desperate situation...". They need help as quickly as possible.

I was told today that management has said that it expects to recruit eight additional staff by the end of September. The Minister of State referred to 14 staff in his reply. That would be excellent if it were to happen, but the problem is that these promises do not seem to be delivered, either on time or at any stage. That is the real difficulty in all of this. I spoke to a nurse recently who is newly qualified, is waiting to be recruited and has applied for numerous positions but simply cannot get one. She has been told through the grapevine that she first needs to work with an agency for a while and then she will eventually be recruited by the HSE. The agency staff working for the HSE are being paid but the agency is taking its cut. This is costing the State twice as much to employ agency staff as it is to employ them directly. This is a folly and it needs to end. We all know that, yet no one does anything about it. That is one of the issues that need to be tackled immediately. We need to sort out this situation so that nurses can be recruited as quickly as possible. The nurses who are working there do not want to stay. They are looking around at the chaos and are thinking that they could have a better job and life if they were to go across the channel to England or to another country, such as Australia, where there are proper terms and conditions, and working conditions for nursing staff. This will continue unless we sort out this problem. The only way we can do that is to get the management right and the adequate number of staff to provide the service that people demand and need.

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