Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Duncan Smith and his colleagues for this important motion. This debate is about whether we have safe and adequate staffing levels in our hospitals and health services, and whether the pay and numbers strategy is an embargo by another name to prevent the recruitment necessary to reach the safe and adequate staffing levels required to ensure patient safety and provide treatment for the patients who require it.

We have a sort of mystery here. Fórsa referred to the mystery of the disappearing jobs in the health service. We also have the mystery of how the Government tells us we have record levels of recruitment and apparently some of the best staffing levels in nursing anywhere in Europe. Then we have what the health workers say, which is exactly the opposite. They say they are chronically understaffed in every single area of the health service, they are completely demoralised and patient safety is being seriously jeopardised across the health service. I can tell the Minister from the off that I believe the health workers and not the Minister. There is a reason the INMO and Fórsa are balloting for industrial action. These are conscientious people. They do not want to strike or like going out on strike. They are balloting because they are demoralised, stressed, overworked and worried about the safety of their patients.

The hospital consultants tell us a different story. Waiting lists will increase by 74,700 by the end of 2024 if current trends continue, an increase of 11% compared with the start of the year. They say that 746,000 people are waiting for outpatient appointments and there are now a record 913,000 people on some form of public hospital or health waiting list.

Representatives of a cancer care group are coming in here today, but I have been talking to them over the past few weeks because we have raised this repeatedly. I talked to the radiation therapists again this morning, before this debate, just to confirm what is going on in cancer care. There has been significant capital investment in machinery in Galway and Cork hospitals and St. Luke's Hospital, among other places, but there are no staff to run many of the machines. They are sitting idle. The Government is having to pay €7 million to outsource cancer treatment to the private sector but, due to the pay and numbers strategy, it will not recruit the necessary staff. If you are diagnosed with cancer, you are supposed to get treatment within three weeks. There is a target that 90% of cases should meet that timescale. Pre Covid, we were at 80% of that target, but it is now down to 60%. Four out of ten people are not getting the timely treatment they need for conditions that are a threat to their life. Radiotherapists are working 12-hour days and are overworked and overstretched. The Government says it is trying to recruit. Health workers and even the advertisements in the hospitals themselves tell us a different story, however.

Hospital workers from St. Michael's Hospital and Loughlinstown hospital, both of which are in my area, came to me and said they are chronically understaffed, patient levels are not safe and so on. We had a meeting, we protested and asked questions. We then got a letter saying that 21 posts would be authorised because there were 21 less in the hospital than were needed. How many of them are being advertised? This is a month after they told us they are trying to recruit these 21 posts. There were two nursing jobs advertised. There are five health and social care professional jobs vacant, acknowledged by the HSE. How many jobs are being advertised on the website? None. Somebody is playing games here. The Government says it is trying to recruit people but in actuality is not advertising the jobs. It is not trying to recruit people because of the pay and numbers strategy. It is not backfilling posts if people leave, which is leaving places chronically understaffed and patient safety jeopardised. The Government is deceiving the public.

See this speech in context