Around 2,000 nursing posts in the Irish health service will have been lost by the end of the year, a nurse’s union has claimed.
The annual general meeting of the Irish Association of Directors of Nursing and Midwifery heard the cut in numbers has resulted in a seriously increased risk to hospital patients.
In a paper delivered on her behalf, association president Irene O’Connor said the Government had to re-think its position on the employment moratorium.
Otherwise, services will be “quite literally ungovernable”, delegates were told.
Ms O'Connor's paper was delivered by the association's vice president, Aveline Casey as she was has been delayed in New York due to flight restrictions.
"Is this what our Government is waiting to happen?” she said. “As an association we can no longer accept this situation and we are obliged to bring the potentially very serious implications of the moratorium to the public's attention,” she said. “Nursing will have lost over 2,000 posts from the public funded services by the end of this year, this equates to a five per cent loss of posts.”
Ms O'Connor said that nursing and midwifery were the only frontline clinical posts that were affected by the moratorium.
She said that nurses accepted there had to be change and more would have to be done with less and to a higher standard. However, she described that the moratorium as "poorly thought out" and said that it was already damaging service delivery. She said that it was "both a crude and unscientific tool for managing limited resources".
She said patients would suffer.
“Patients will be left waiting for, or may not even receive fundamental nursing. Clinical signs will be missed with the resulting delay in diagnosis and treatment,” she said. “Diagnosis and treatment delayed prolong recovery, and failing to recognise a deteriorating condition can lead to possible death.”