Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have acknowledged there are issues with discharge rates at weekends. Clearly there are issues with workflow and management practices, but changes in workflow and management practices are no substitute for properly addressing the real issue underlying the crisis in healthcare, which is the issue of staff shortages. We are hearing from hospitals that know they need to recruit more staff, that have identified gaps and engaged in recruitment but are not getting the go-ahead from the HSE to be able to offer the jobs. Thus, we hear from healthcare workers who are leaving for other countries because they are so chronically overworked due to staff shortages. This is not just in emergency care but across our healthcare system. The shortage of public health nurses in the community is causing babies to miss key developmental checks and the HSE has confirmed it has had to scale back its service, thereby leaving children and babies at the mercy of a postcode lottery in terms of key developmental checks.

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