A number of nurses at University Hospital Galway, under severe pressure from staff and bed shortages, have written to management disclaiming responsibility in the event of anything going wrong on their watch, a local nursing union representative revealed this week.
Helen Murphy, SIPTU’s chief nursing shop steward at the hospital and a member of SIPTU’s national executive, said the ban on recruitment of frontline staff together with the continued closure of a number of beds at the city facility was putting “enormous” pressure on frontline staff.
Calling on the public to make an election issue out of these concerns she urged people to ask politicians what they are going to do about “the state of the hospital” when they canvass support.
“Beds continue to be closed which is directly related to the moratorium on recruitment. This must be lifted as there is enormous pressure on all frontline staff. Consultants are exempt from the moratorium so too should be frontline staff. Nursing and support staff are under huge pressure because staff, who retire, for instance are not being replaced. Stress levels in the hospital are absolutely dreadful. Nurses are putting it in writing to management, they are not taking responsibility if anything goes wrong.
“UHG is a dedicated centre of excellence without the resources. We have patients from Castlebar, Sligo and Letterkenny who are now being treated here but there are less beds available. A&E is under severe pressure as is everywhere in the hospital. It is appalling the Minister for Health stands for this, she always said frontline services would be maintained but that’s not the case.”
Ms Murphy says the public should be up in arms. “They should make this an election issue. They should ask politicians what they are going to do re the state of the hospital. People have definitely become more complacent. Unless you get sick you do not realise how bad the situation is. With swine flu admissions and hikes in VHI premiums and reductions in people’s pay packets [more people may abandon private health insurance] there will be further pressure on the public healthcare system.”
Noreen Muldoon, the Irish Nurses’ and Midwives Oganisation’s industrial liaison officer in the west, says at least 130 beds remain closed at UHG and Merlin Park Hospitals.
“There is still pressure on beds and that’s not just because of the swine flu but that is a contributory factor. There are a lot of quite sick people presenting with seasonal flu, the vomiting bug, chest problems, etc. Beds should be opened, there are at least 54 beds closed at UHG and 75 at Merlin Park and that’s a conservative estimate. There were 32 patients on trolleys on Tuesday at UHG and the figures since Christmas have been similar to that. Any ward would usually have from 28 to 35 patients so you could say there was a full ward of patients lying on trolleys on Tuesday. This is soul destroying, there are not proper resources to care for them with dignity and respect yet nurses and all the staff provide an excellent service. This lack of beds is a constant problem for our members and for management. It’s not local management [who are responsible for the problem], it’s coming from the national arena.”
Ms Muldoon is hopeful the new HSE chief executive, Cathal Magee who replaced Professor Brendan Drumm, may make some positive changes.
“I hope he will be looking positively at how the HSE and services at the frontline are managed.”
