According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), many positions within cancer, palliative, paediatric, and rehabilitative nursing are remaining unfilled, forcing active nurses to take on more shifts. The union attributes this problem to a covert hiring freeze within the Health Service Executive (HSE). In response to these claims, a ballot for industrial action among INMO members is expected to initiate on Monday.
HSE’s CEO, Bernard Gloster, unveiled a new employment threshold in July, setting it at 125,420 full-time positions, a figure corresponding to the number of salaried posts from the end of last year. The HSE also plans to add about 2,300 positions for new ventures this year, and integrate approximately 1,000 hospice workers into the public system.
Trade unions, however, argue that this new pay and hiring strategy by the HSE will result in the cessation of 2,000 subsidised roles, which were vacant at the close of last year. Micheál Martin, the Tánaiste, argued in the Dáil last week that the health service workforce has increased by 28,000 since the start of 2020, including an extra 9,375 nurses and midwives. He refuted the idea that the new employment cap was tantamount to a hiring freeze, describing it as a “baseless claim”.
Martin also emphasised that additional funds have been set aside to enable growth in health service staffing for the current and following year. Despite these assurances, the INMO maintains that the current employment cap is contributing to critically short-staffed situations and imminently high-risk scenarios, undermining their member’s capacity to provide safe care.
The lack of staffing in various nursing specialities such as cancer care, palliative care, pediatrics, and rehab, is leaving many positions unfilled. This results in heightened demands from the HSE management who expect employees to work on their off-days, stay on after their scheduled shifts without pay, and cope with escalating public dissatisfaction due to heightened waiting times for services.
In a recent statement, Caroline Gourley, INMO president, highlighted the mounting issues. She stated that the union has numerous examples of positions not being filled either due to retirement or job exits, and even roles considered essential by the emergency department agreement, remain vacant. Whilea safe staffing and skill mix framework has been created, many necessary positions for maintaining safety are also empty.
Gourley focused on a large number of temporary vacancies that are not filled due to leaves, especially maternity leaves, leading to a risky environment for patients and the existing nurses and midwives. The HSE expects that these professionals will extend their shifts, be available for additional shifts on their days off and this ‘goodwill’ is expected to carry on throughout this winter. INMO made it clear that this would not be the case.
Recruitment gaps were also highlighted. According to Gourley, it can take up to a year to recruit a nurse or midwife to fill the vacancies. Mr Martin suggested that the HSE’s HR management system needed to be examined and expressed his concern about the delegation of work to regional executives for resource prioritisation which might lead to unfair scenarios if not carefully handled.