60 nurses to retire in Galway

Up to 60 nurses are expected to retire from HSE West as part of Government’s early retirement scheme next month, leaving services stretched and patient care compromised.

Around 1,000 staff members are expected to retire from HSE West on or before 29 February, including 80 from across University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park Hospital, with around 60 of these expected to be nursing staff.

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) Industrial Relations Officer Regina Durcan said the impending retirements are equivalent to the loss of 48 whole-time-equivalent nursing posts. She also confirmed that a further 12 public health nurses are expected to retire from across County Galway by the end of next month.

HSE West has yet to confirm where staff members will be lost, but Ms Durcan indicated that specialist services, such as orthopaedics and neo-natal care may be impacted by the impending retirements.

She also suggested that a “substantial” number of retirements would be among Clinical Nurse Managers or Ward Sisters.

“It is such an exit of experience and skills, that skillset can’t easily be replaced,” she said, adding that reports from front-line workers would indicate that reducing staff levels would lead to “considerable risk in terms of safe patient care”.

HSE West has acknowledged that the Galway/Roscommon Hospital Group faces “many challenges” in 2012, including reduced budget and reduced staffing levels, and has stated that a clearer picture as to the full extent of the planned retirements would emerge by the end of February.

“We are currently developing contingency plans to deal with the specific difficulties that will arise as a result of these retirements and will refine these plans further when the numbers retiring are finalised,” said a spokesperson for HSE West.

Ms Durcan said yesterday that she is hopeful a meeting on the required contingency plans would be called shortly. “We have a very short timeframe in order to have these plans put to us and for the members to review them and see are they workable. It’s a big job,” she said.

Meanwhile, HSE West Regional Health Forum Chairman Cllr Padraig Conneely has suggested that Health Minister James Reilly would allow increased flexibility in terms of staffing within GUH if “serious gaps” arise that could lead to care being jeopardised.

“We have major problems in Galway, it’s the only place that hasn’t been sorted out,” said Cllr Conneely, referring to UHG’s failure to meet Minister Reilly’s target that no patient should be on a waiting list longer than 12 months by the end of December 2011.

He also stressed that “it is no use” appointing a new Chief Executive Officer, Bill Maher, to the Galway/Roscommon Hospital Group and then “tying one hand behind his back”.

“If the new CEO is showing progress in the system, getting work in order, putting it right, we just can’t tie him down. And, if he needs a bit of flexibility then that flexibility should be given to get Galway right, because it’s not right at the moment,” he said.