The Irish Nurses and Midwives' Organisation (INMO) has expressed huge concern following three high-level resignations over a lack of progress on health service reforms.
Chair of the South/South West Hospital Group Board, Professor Geraldine McCarthy issued her resignation last night; this hospital group incorporates University Hospital Kerry.
It follows the resignation of Professor Tom Keane and Laura Magahy, who stood down from the Sláintecare board last Wednesday.
Sláintecare is the ten-year programme intended to transform health and social care services.
These three high-level resignations are causing “huge concern” among nurses and midwives, the INMO Executive Council has warned.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha, who is from Ventry, says it's time for direct intervention from the Taoiseach and says a clear recommitment to the Sláintecare reform package is needed.
The group will write to the Taoiseach and call on him to intervene to secure Sláintecare's future; they are also asking the Oireachtas Health Committee to urgently convene on this matter.
With the numbers on trolleys at its highest since the pandemic began, the INMO says the health service is rapidly returning to the “bad old days of overcrowding”; 421 patients were on trolleys this morning.
Phil Ní Sheaghdha says Sláintecare is a good plan, agreed by all parties and adds the high-level resignations indicate that government is not prioritising reform.
She says after everything we have gone through with the COVID-19 pandemic, Ireland's healthcare team and patients deserve commitment to real change.
