Hospital staff vacancies at crisis level in Mayo and across region

A number of members of HSE West Forum have suggested that the number of vacancies among nursing and general healthcare staff in hospitals in the region is at crisis level.

Galway councillor, Daithi O Cualain, stating that a lack of urgency around the situation was a matter of serious concern and adding that he knew of a number of staff in management who were preparing to resign from their roles due to the constant pressures of being understaffed every day.

In relation to Mayo General Hospital, Councillor Michael Kilcoyne, who asked for specific staff vacancy information in the county hospital, was informed that there are currently 107 vacant nursing staff at MUH, and a total of almost 200 staff vacancies across the board.

Ann Cosgrove, COO of the Saolta west of Ireland hospital group, stated that on average, posts are filled within six months.

However, 'due to lack of skilled candidates in specific disciplines, some posts may take longer to fill. Work permits, garda vetting, overseas clearance and occupational health clearance can delay start dates for successful candidates'.

Councillor Kilcoyne stated: "I just can't understand why you can't get more nursing staff. I understand 60,000 to 70,000 answered Ireland's Call, but just around 1,000 of them got jobs. I am baffled by that."

Saolta Chief Executive Tony Canavan stated: "The reality is that not very many staff came out of that recruitment process and the call to people to come home. Also, there were lots of types of applicants who wanted to come home - but not to work in Mayo University Hospital."

Ann Cosgrove added: "We take this very seriously. We do have a very much increased demand on our services, higher than in previous years.

"We are trying to understand the context of this, whether it is delayed access to care from the pandemic and are there supports that could be provided in the community, where GPs could provide more management perhaps."

"We do have a sustained recruitment campaign and it is very focused. Only recently, we recruited a cohort of international staff along with domestic staff and we hope that will open some more of the closed beds in the region. We are also using the private hospitals at the moment to help take the pressure off. It is top priority because we know it is going to be a very difficult winter.

"Our recruitment processes definitely take time within the public service, up to two months for all the interview and clearance data needed.

"Additional posts have been approved for the Covid pandemic and also for development of services.

"People also move across the system for promotional purposes, so all of those factors feed into the level of vacancies that arise."