A woman lay on the ground for two days after a fall, fearful that if she went for treatment there would be no one to mind her husband who has dementia and her adult child who has special needs.
That case and hundreds others of of cancer patients missing out on radiation therapy have been cited by health unions as examples of the fall-out from staff shortages.
At the Oireachtas Health Committee, staff representatives also claimed gaps in nursing at University Hospital Limerick will “cause more heartbreak” in the wake of the tragic death of Aoife Johnston.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and SIPTU described the “wrong” being done to patients as the fall-out from a recruitment freeze continues despite it being lifted.
Both said 600,000 new homecare hours announced in Budget 2025 are unlikely to be filled with shortages in home support workers and public health nursing.
Caroline Gourley, INMO president, described how a woman who cares for her husband with dementia and an adult child with special needs was affected.
“I had recently met a woman who fell,” she told Social Democrats’ Roisin Shortall.
She said:
“We eventually got a place for them and sorted them. That is what is happening in the community.”
Damian Ginley, Siptu’s sector organiser with national responsibility for support grades in the Health Division, said home carer numbers have dropped by 84 in 18 months despite growing demand.
Phil Ni Sheaghdha, INMO general secretary, said over 2,000 nursing and midwifery posts have been “effectively abolished”. Any roles not filled on December 31, 2023, are not now being back-filled, even jobs previously approved, she said.
In response to Senator Martin Conway’s description of the HSE’s approach to recruitment figures as “mischievous”, she said fourth-year student nurses are being counted as full-time staff.
Last year the total agency bill was €647m. This year between January and May this spending was up 10% on the same period in 2023 hitting €288m, the committee heard.
Deborah Kelleher, a radiation therapist, attended with Siptu. Up to 120 cancer patients miss out on therapy daily as four specialist machines remain closed, she said. This includes Cork University Hospital.
She said “the majority” of those patients are being outsourced to private care instead.
“To date it is my understanding that in and around €10m has been spent on outsourcing to private centres, which is 50% of the budget that the National Cancer Control Programme were looking for (to hire public staff),” she said.
Ms Ni Sheaghdha said cancer patients are also seeing delays even in getting chemotherapy due to nursing shortages.
She said:
UHL continues to have “insufficient nurses” to meet demand, she said, adding: “the overcrowding situation isn’t improving”.
On Wednesday 93 patients were on trolleys there, along with 82 at CUH among 593 nationally.
“We would just simply state that the staffing caps are just going to cause absolute heartbreak and that is preventable,” she said, while offering sympathies to all affected families.
