SINN Féin TD for Kerry, Pa Daly, has expressed his concerns about the extension of the HSE recruitment freeze announced on Friday and how it affects University Hospital Kerry.

Deputy Daly wants the freeze reviewed urgently to help frontline staff at the hospital as he feels services will be further compromised.

“There was a recruitment ban for clerical and administrative staff, and this has now been extended across for the board,” said Deputy Daly.

Continued below…

“As I made clear previously, there are 50 whole-time equivalent (WTE) vacancies in UHK. That is a huge resource gap and staff are doing their utmost to cope,” he continued.

“Every service within the hospital depends upon the work of administrative staff. They have been extremely accommodating and contributed to the drive to cut waiting lists in endocrinology and cardiology. Their duties of can range from administering plans of care, liaising with GPs as well as supporting consultants.

“Now with the freeze extended, we can expect further services to be compromised. This will create a hole that it will not be easy to climb out of.”

“The irony that the crisis stems from an agency bill that should not have been allowed to develop in the first place should not be lost on anyone. Workforce planning could have prevented this mess, and it is the only thing that will get us out of it. The freeze must be reviewed urgently and the fact nothing extra in the Budget was set out to achieve this is a real setback for frontline staff,” concluded Daly.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….