by Alan Jaques and Bernie English news@limerickpost.ie
MORE than €12 million was spent on short-term locum medical staff in the University Hospital Limerick (UHL) hospitals group last year.
According to documents released this week by the HSE to members of the Regional Health Forum West, spending on agency workers in Limerick has risen “drastically”, with the cost of locum medical staff more than doubling each year for the last three years.
Limerick Sinn Féin councillor Malachy McCreesh has criticised the figure, stating that successive cuts to the healthcare budget have had “disastrous” effects on developing services at the University Hospital in Limerick.
“Although I welcome a recent announcement that 70 new nursing posts are being created across the group, clearly there is a very serious problem with an over reliance on short-term locum workers,” said Cllr McCreesh.
“It is simply scandalous that €12,700,116 was spent last year paying agency workers to plug gaps in the local hospital workforce. There is a clear solution here, with a chance to create meaningful, long-term, local employment within the sector.
“Some forward thinking is needed from HSE management to avoid taxpayers footing the bill for what is simply poor practice,” he added.
In reply to a query on the figures from the Limerick Post, a spokeswoman for the HSE said that the €12 million covered all of the Limerick hospitals, including Croom orthopaedic hospital and the University Maternity Hospital as well as keeping an extensive range of services in the community staffed.
She said that community services are classed as any HSE service, other than those provided in the hospitals. These include public health nursing, dental and orthodontic services, child and family services, services for older people and people with disability, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, physiotherapy and chiropody
“It is clear that the recent HSE recruitment embargo and the number of medical graduates emigrating have added to problems across the UHL hospitals group” the spokeswoman added.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin leader on Limerick City and County Council, Cllr Maurice Quinlivan has hit out at the worsening effects of hospital overcrowding and points the finger squarely at the Government’s failure to invest in the provision of long-term nursing home care for the elderly.
“Hospital overcrowding has now reached dangerous levels, we have already seen the resignation of one HSE chief this year and the comments of another ignored, with regards to the hundreds of acute beds being blocked up for months on end by elderly patients waiting on community care packages.
“This government has ignored the advice of experts, and embarked on a path of austerity where the healthcare budget is concerned,” he said.
