Galway's public hospitals short more than 160 nurses and managers

And it has been conceded that staff shortages are impacting on the care patients receive, and on hospital management’s ability to reopen closed wards.

University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park Hospital currently have 141 staff vacancies for nurses.

This figure of vacant nursing posts is likely to be far higher because it does not include the number of staff nurses on maternity leave and relates only to vacant nursing positions.

A further 26 clinical nurse manager positions remain unfilled at UHG.

These are permanent posts and cover a wide range of areas across the acute hospital. The vacant positions are in the Emergency Department as well as on wards, and in areas such as patient flow, clinical facilitators and outpatient services.

Ann Cosgrove, Chief Operating Officer of Saolta, confirmed the staff vacancies in response to a question at the HSE West Regional Health Forum on Tuesday submitted by City Councillor Martina O’Connor (Green), a trained nurse.

Speaking to the Connacht Tribune, Cllr O’Connor said to be down 26 nursing managers and 141 staff nurses was “phenomenal”.

“It’s a huge number and it just goes to show how the hospital is trying to function without these front-line staff who are vital in the day-to-day care of patients on wards and in the Emergency Department,” she said.

Cllr O’Connor said it was “inevitable” that patient care was suffering due to the shortage.

In reply to a question from County Councillor Daithí Ó Cualáin (FF), the Chief Executive Officer of Saolta, Tony Canavan said the Cardiothoracic Ward at UHG has been relocated.

It has 10 patients currently with a further three beds to be opened in the autumn. And he said that the plan is to open 14 beds in St Nicholas’ Ward, “for which staff are being recruited”.

But Conamara Councillor Ó Cualáin, a nurse, said he was “extremely concerned” there were 141 nursing positions vacant.

“This is impacting patient care and putting nursing staff under extreme pressure throughout the hospital,” he said.

And he said it was impacting the reopening of 14 beds at St Nicholas, because it was not safe to open without more nurses.

“The recruitment of additional nursing staff needs to be undertaken as a matter of urgency and the delays encountered throughout the system from interview to staff being in position on the floor needs to be expedited. It currently takes between three and six months to have nurses in the vacant positions from the date they are interviewed,” added Cllr Ó Cualáin.

Previously Galway West TD Catherine Connolly (Ind) complained that St Monica’s Ward at UHG had been closed for two months this year due to low levels of staffing.

At the HSE Forum meeting last December, Saolta said it would embark on its largest ever overseas recruitment campaign to fill vacant nursing posts.

During that meeting Saolta said it had 600 unfilled nursing and midwifery positions across its seven hospitals in the West and North West but it did not give a breakdown.