Independent Ireland TD Michael Fitzmaurice has written to the Minister for Health demanding urgent answers over the employment of newly qualified nurses in Galway who have completed their training but are now facing uncertainty over whether they will receive contracts.
Deputy Fitzmaurice said it was unacceptable that nurses who had spent four years training and had gone through the HSE recruitment process could now be left without employment because of additional approval and financial controls.
He has been contacted by newly qualified nurses who have outlined serious concerns about the situation in Galway.
“I have been contacted by graduates who have done everything that was asked of them. They completed their training, went through the recruitment process and were led to believe that permanent positions would be available once they qualified.
“Now they are being left in limbo, waiting for positions to be approved and contracts to be issued.
“That is simply not good enough.”
Deputy Fitzmaurice said he understands that approximately 72 graduates were interviewed and placed on a ranked panel, with positions subsequently allocated based on the requirements of Galway University Hospitals and the clinical preferences of individual graduates.
He said approximately 65 graduates were initially offered positions in Galway, but concerns have now emerged over an additional approval process before contracts can be issued.
According to information provided to Deputy Fitzmaurice, only nine positions had received approval as of last week, with five permanent and four temporary positions.
He has written to the Minister for Health seeking clarity on the situation and asking whether HSE financial controls are preventing positions from being approved.
“We are constantly told about the pressures facing our health service and the need to recruit and retain nurses.
“Yet we have newly qualified Irish nurses who want to work in Galway and who have gone through the recruitment process being told that their positions have not been approved.
“It makes absolutely no sense. Especially at at time when reports from the hospital suggest there are already serious staff shortages across the board in Galway”
“The HSE and Government cannot spend years training nurses, tell graduates that permanent opportunities will be available and then leave them without contracts when they qualify.”
Deputy Fitzmaurice said the situation was particularly concerning given the wider difficulties facing nursing recruitment in the West.
The INMO has also raised concerns about graduate nurses and midwives in the HSE West and North-West region being left without employment opportunities, while highlighting vacancies within frontline services.
He also pointed to the recent controversy involving graduate nurses in Cork, where the HSE acknowledged that job offers had been made in error and subsequently withdrawn.
“We cannot have a situation where young nurses qualify, are offered positions and then find themselves being told that the jobs are no longer available or that their contracts cannot be approved.
“We are effectively creating a situation where graduates may feel they have no option but to leave Ireland.
“That is madness when the health service needs nurses.”
Deputy Fitzmaurice has asked the Minister to provide detailed information on:
· how many newly qualified nurses in Galway were initially offered positions;
· how many accepted those offers;
· how many permanent positions were identified;
· how many positions have received final approval;
· why an additional approval process has been introduced;
· whether HSE financial controls or overspending are preventing nursing positions from being approved;
· how many graduates remain without contracts;
· whether the Government intends to provide permanent positions for these graduates;
· how many nurses requiring visas have been employed by the HSE over the past 12 months; and
· how many nurses are currently being employed through agency arrangements.
Deputy Fitzmaurice said the Government needed to provide answers quickly.
“It is extremely difficult to explain to a young person that after four years of training they may now have to return to working in a café or pub, seek social welfare support, work below their nursing qualification or consider emigrating because the position they were expecting has not been approved.
“We need to know exactly what is happening in Galway, how many graduates are affected and what the Government and HSE are going to do about it.
“These graduates want to work. They are trained, qualified and ready to provide care to patients.
“The last thing we should be doing is putting barriers in their way.”
midwives.”