Carlow Councillor blasts HSE recruitment cap saying it is 'a malicious policy'

Carlow PBP Councillor Adrienne Wallace has called for the HSE to lift its recruitment cap and has expressed concern that the staff embargo is being replaced with a staff ceiling.

She added “As a mother to a child with complex medical needs we spend a lot of time in the Children’s Hospital, we have always been met with the best medical staff but seeing first-hand the levels of burnout and the short staffing is scary. The recruitment embargo and now the staff ceiling is a malicious policy coming directly from government parties and genuinely threatens the level of care for those who need it most. It is having a devastating effect on our most vulnerable and it has to go.”

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She added “Over 2,000 much-needed nursing and midwifery posts have now been effectively abolished by the HSE. This means the safety of nurses and midwives at work is severely compromised and their ability to provide safe, appropriate and timely care is not possible. The HSE’s baseless recruitment moratorium has led to further levels of unsafe staffing right across our public health service, from the community to our acute hospitals. I wholeheartedly support the INMO’s decision to ballot workers on industrial action, collective action is now needed to ensure every patient receives the best care and that each worker is fully supported to work in a safe environment.”

Cllr Wallace concluded “I will be raising this at the local Health Committee I now sit on. In Carlow it is clear we need our own injury care unit but this will be very hard to deliver if the ability to recruit staff is severely limited. The HSE needs root and branch reform, the nurses and other staff on the ground need to be the ones making the decisions about what resources are needed and not bureaucrats in offices who are removed from the day-to-day running of a hospital”