Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá an cosc earcaíochta sna seirbhísí sláinte ag cruthú go leor deacrachtaí agus anois tá 70% d’altraí ag rá go bhfuil sábháilteacht othar i mbaol. The effects of the Government's recruitment embargo are to be seen right across the State. They are to be seen in the number of patients forced to languish on trolleys in hospitals. They are to be seen in the number of patients across the health service whose appointments are being cancelled, as well as in the length of time they are being forced to wait for critical care. Those who are working at the coalface - our nurses - are very clear about the impact the recruitment embargo is having on the health service. The impact is not just on them, but also on their patients.

Yesterday, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, published the results of its member survey. It tells us that 70% of nurses and midwives said they were concerned that patient safety was now at risk as a result of staffing shortfalls. It is shocking that this is the view of those working in our hospitals. It is, however, an inevitable consequence of the Government's recruitment embargo. According to the survey, 63% of nurses and midwives have considered leaving their jobs in the past month, and one in five nurses have presented to their GP because of work-related stress. This is simply unsustainable. Karen McGowan, the outgoing president of the INMO, said yesterday, "the Government has failed to make progress on hospital overcrowding, and conditions for staff and patients in many places has gotten far worse than we could have imagined". These are health professionals who want to do their very best for their patients and our people, but in many cases the Government is making it impossible for them to do that. It is causing many of them to leave Ireland and seek work abroad, denying this country their skills and service. We need them here.

Sarah contacted us recently. She is a recently graduated care professional who said that it is horrible to have to sit in interviews only then to be told at a later stage that there is no job because of the embargo. Dylan contacted us. Speaking about the embargo, he said he would love to come back home to Ireland and work as a nurse, but it is impossible to get a job because of the Government's embargo. Lorraine got in touch with us and said, “I am desperate to move home, but this embargo has left me stuck abroad. Please get me home.” The recruitment embargo the Government has imposed is making matters go from bad to worse. It is impacting every area of our health service. We were contacted by a young pharmacist from Waterford. She applied for a job last year and she was so enthusiastic about this job, but she is now being told that her interview will not be progressed because of the recruitment embargo. In her own words, she said that she has been left in limbo. We were contacted by a speech and language therapist who was offered a dream job last year. Everyone in this House knows that if we need one thing, it is more speech and language therapists. She was offered a dream job last year. She is working through an agency while waiting for the contract to come through from the HSE, but she has now been told that the job that was offered to her has been withdrawn as a result of the recruitment embargo. Under the recruitment embargo, job offers in our health services were instructed to be withdrawn. That is a fact.

It is patients and staff who are suffering as a result of this. Trained professional health service staff who want to come home are now being locked out of that opportunity because of this embargo. It is now May and the Government still has not approved workforce plan for the health service this year. It is five months into the year, but it still has not approved the workforce plan. When will the Government get its act together? When will it approve the workforce plan for our health service for 2024? Will it lift the recruitment embargo that is so badly damaging our health service and locking so many of our trained health professionals out of the potential to work in the health service, roll up their sleeves and care for the people they are trained to care for?

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