Karen McGowan, an experienced nurse at Beaumont Hospital, yesterday painted a bleak picture of an overcrowded healthcare system, but said it could be transformed with the right level of investment.
Ms McGowan, the outgoing president of the Irish nurses and midwives organization INMO, was speaking on the first day of the union's 105th annual delegate conference in Croke Park.
“Our environments have become very unpredictable and unsafe,” she said.
“We don't have the right amount of staff to meet patient needs. That in itself is a challenge. We have staff leaving, so that obviously affects the morale of the team.”
She said nurses know they are going to a workplace without enough staff to handle the high volume of patients.
“What does that actually mean? You know, there are challenges in providing care, in terms of medications, patient care and feeding times, so there can be delays when it comes to providing that care in an efficient time. It is a huge challenge and that in itself has consequences for the nursing team,” she says.
“They're questioning their patient care, and themselves and their own mental health, in terms of how they're performing. They can only do what they can with the resources they have and if they don't have the staff, it leads to unsafe care.”
Phil Ni Sheaghdha, general secretary of the INMO, said staffing is a dominant theme at this year's conference.
She said the union's executive council plans to table an emergency motion today on the issue, clearly setting out how we can do better.
“The government must do better, and it is simply not acceptable to conduct investigation after investigation after the incident has occurred,” she said.
She referred to “broken” government promises. The union leader said it is really disappointing that there is no funding for a nursing workforce and skills mix framework and that there is a moratorium on recruitment.
“What that says to our members and what it says to people who rely on the public health department is that it doesn't really matter,” she said.
“We have the measurements to tell us what is safe, but we don't really pay attention to them.”
She said Hiqa last week published reports from November saying its services were unsafe, claiming things have gotten worse since then. The union leader called for Hiqa to be given more powers to do more than just make recommendations when they see unsafe situations in acute hospitals.
Meanwhile, Ms Ni Sheaghdha said the HSE has not given nurses and midwives pay increases that were paid on time to other public sector workers under the current pay agreement.
She said it was mentioned that one payroll department may not be able to pay until November. “That's just not acceptable,” she said.
Commenting on the half-a-billion-euro overrun in the healthcare system, highlighted by Health Ministry Secretary-General Robert Watt, she said it goes to the heart of the union's 'safe workforce' campaign.
Ms Ni Sheaghdha said there were 39,500 nurses working in public health services in 2007, but staffing levels had not kept pace with population growth of one million.
She said the last time the budget was prioritized over staff and safety “we lost a large number of nurses and midwives to other countries”.
“We believe the HSE has got it wrong. We believe that the Ministry of Health is wrong,” she said. “You can't impose a moratorium on recruitment and say it won't jeopardize safe care.”
However, healthcare sources said Ireland is one of the countries with the highest proportion of practicing nurses per capita in the EU and OECD.