MORALE IN the health service is at an all-time low due to cutbacks, staffing embargoes and the failure by management to consult front-line staff on how services should be improved, a national conference of Siptu nurses was told last evening.
Louise O'Reilly, Siptu's national nursing official, said restrictions on employment in the HSE meant staff on sick leave were not being replaced and hospital wards were being left short-staffed
Despite this policy to try and save money, the HSE could not indicate how much was being saved by the initiative, she added.
She was addressing the opening of this year's conference of Siptu nurses in Wexford, attended by some 200 delegates.
Ms O'Reilly said nurses were sick of waiting for action on a range of issues. They were sick of waiting for the Government and HSE to enter into talks with staff to improve the health service.
"We are sick waiting for the money from the sale of lands surrounding psychiatric hospitals to be reinvested in the mental health service. It is bad for the health of the nation when we fail to invest in the public health service and we're sick waiting for this investment.
"We are sick of broken promises. . . we are sick waiting for a compensation scheme for nurses injured as the result of an assault at work. We are sick waiting for the Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney to listen to nurses, midwives and frontline healthcare workers," she said.
She explained that Siptu, which represents more than 8,000 nurses, had requested a meeting with Ms Harney in January on the recruitment restrictions but she was too busy to meet the union. As a result she was not invited to address this year's conference.