Seanad debates

Wednesday, 23 October 2002

What worries me most is the terrible loss of morale in the health service. I was glad to see that the Minister of State used the word "retain" because one of the biggest problems in the health sector is retaining staff. Despite the fact that there have been wage increases all around, we still have great difficulty in retaining nurses and now have to hire nursing staff from abroad. Worse still, we have a terrible problem in retaining staff during their final five years of service prior to retirement. The number of consultants and senior nurses opting for early retirement is alarming. Early retirement not only represents a loss of personnel but also a loss of expertise because it takes newly appointed staff some time to build up experience.

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