The IMO also warned of a further staffing problems down the line
Image via PixabayJust 12 out of 29 acute hospitals are operating at a 'safe staffing level', according to the INMO.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, along with other representative groups, appeared before an Oireachtas Health Committee this morning, highlighting the impact of overcrowding and staff retention in Irish hospitals.
21 thousand patients so far this year have been left on trolleys in Irish hospitals, according to the INMO and its creating “inhumane environments” to provide care.
Union President Karen McGowan says patients are suffering:
"The indignity of what they are enduring in these emergency departments is horrendous and every day it's getting worse and worse. This is simply not being managed."
Meanwhile just 12 hospitals are operating at a safe staffing level, which INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdh says is down to a lack of investment:
"2019, 2020, and 2021's budgets should have allocated 10 million. To date there has been 15 million allocated."
Meanwhile the Irish Medical Organisation told committee members there are probably more Irish medics in Austrialia then here.
Dr Mick Molloy says Irish contracts don’t appeal to many:
"You're appointed to a job for two years, but you're going to spend six months in Dublin, six months in Waterford, six months in Wexford, 6 months in Clonmel. How do you manage a family life like that? That's very very difficult."
The IMO also warned of a further staffing problems down the line as 3,000 doctors have left Ireland in the past 5 years
