[Letter to Irish Times >>>] Sir, – Having spent time in the Mid Western Regional Hospital recently, including 24 hours in A & E, and having experienced first hand the atrocious conditions in which nurses and staff are forced to work, I fully support them in their efforts to have the recruitment embargo rescinded and beds freed up (Breaking News, October 4th).
The purpose of the recruitment ban, according to the HSE, is to save money. But anyone with even a scrap of common sense could see that this was not happening. Effectively, all it was doing was robbing Peter to pay Paul; and HSE national director of human resources, Sean McGrath, has finally come out and admitted it. He told senior management recently that the HSE has essentially swapped moratorium savings for agency workers. The recruitment ban is not saving money, but it certainly is putting the health and safety of people at risk, including the health and safety of nurses and staff.
It is time now for Dr James Reilly and the HSE to admit they – not the nurses – got it wrong, re-open A & Es around the country and abolish the recruitment embargo immediately. – Yours, etc, NORA BENNIS
