RCN condemns planned cuts in nursing posts
Published: 10 February 2009
In advance of a Northern Ireland Assembly debate on the proposed loss of 722 nursing posts under the Comprehensive Spending Review efficiency savings, RCN Northern Ireland Director Mary Hinds said that the proposals will damage patient care and place further strain on an already pressured nursing workforce.
The debate was sponsored by the Assembly Health Committee and called on Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety Michael McGimpsey MLA to ensure that proposed trust efficiency savings do not impact on frontline services and vulnerable patient groups. Mary said: “You can’t get much more frontline than a nurse and we’re gravely concerned about the impact on patient care. Nurses want to give good care to patients and we are concerned that the loss of these posts will have a detrimental effect on care.”
Speaking during the Assembly debate, Health Committee chair Iris Robinson MLA claimed that the Minister had previously told the Committee that frontline nursing staff would not be affected in the projected job losses. SDLP health spokesperson Carmel Hanna MLA said: “The most important thing to do this week is to establish the principle that frontline care provision for the most vulnerable in our society must be inviolable”.
Alliance Party health spokesperson Kieran McCarthy MLA stated that news of the proposed cuts was “deeply worrying” and he added: “Nurses carry out massively important work and our health system would face great difficulty were it to lose these staff. There should be no damaging cuts to vital frontline services.”
Health Committee Deputy Chair and Sinn Féin health spokesperson Michelle O’Neill MLA commented: “These are jobs that are essential to the function of a full and effective health service, without which patient care will inevitably suffer. I think if you talk to any nurse they will very clearly tell you that both themselves and their colleagues are stretched. To lose 700 nurses is wholly unacceptable.”
In response, the Minister said: “I want to first make it clear that I plan to avoid compulsory redundancies as these posts will be reduced through turnover in the workforce. We are delivering more and more services to people in their own home. This allows us to reduce our reliance on hospitals and means we require fewer staff to do this. I also want to assure everyone that no nurse will be able to come out of the health service until new services are in place. Patient safety must come first.”