Rose Conway-Walsh: Says HSE Bill Falls Short on Staffing
Rose Conway-Walsh criticised the HSE governance bill, welcoming proposed governance revisions but arguing it will not deliver meaningful change on financial management or staffing. She called for a multi-annual funding framework and staffing frameworks and challenged the minister on severe staffing shortages at Mayo University Hospital and gaps in services for women with endometriosis.
Governance failures cited
The speaker pointed to past HSE failures as justification for stronger reform - the cervical check scandal that revealed 162 women were not informed about missed abnormalities in their smear tests, the 2023 nursing home review which revealed serious governance lapses after a resident was raped by a staff member in a HSE nursing home, and the treatment of whistleblowers who faced suspension and disciplinary action for raising concerns of financial misconduct and care home abuses.
Critique of the bill and proposed amendments
While welcoming revisions to corporate governance within the HSE, she said the bill will do little to achieve "the highest standards of prudent and effective financial and budgetary management." She said Sinn Féin will bring forward amendments at committee stage to provide for multi-annual funding and staffing frameworks, arguing that multi-year funding is the only way to enable proper planning and efficiencies.
Staffing problems at Mayo University Hospital
She challenged the claim that lifting the recruitment embargo has had positive effects, saying there have been no benefits in Mayo. Drawing on meetings with the INMO and personal visits to the ED at Mayo University Hospital, she commended staff but insisted there are not enough personnel, describing overstretched nurses, corridor care with trolleys either side, and patients unable or reluctant to attend hospital because services are not safe enough.
Services for women with endometriosis
She referenced women who attended the Dáil galleries and criticised references to "phantom clinics," saying many services touted are not accessible. She warned of deteriorating health for women with endometriosis, saying organs were being "eaten by endometriosis," and urged the minister to acknowledge the realities patients face and to act.
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Minister, I appreciate that the bill before us will provide for revisions to corporate governance arrangements within the HSE and indeed I welcome this. But if ever an agency needed governance reforms, it is the HSE, there are too many incidents of governance failures at this agency. The cervical check scandal, which revealed 162 women were not informed about missed abnormalities in their smear tests. In the 2023 nursing home review revealed serious governance lapses after a resident was raped by a staff member in the HSE nursing home and we will all remember the treatment of the whistleblowers in the HSE who faced suspension and disciplinary action for raising concerns of financial misconduct and care home abuses. However, I have concerns that this bill will do little to implement meaningful change in relation to its stated aim of exercising the highest standards of prudent and effective financial and budgetary management. And if you really wanted to enhance budgetary governance, you would introduce a multi-annual funding framework you promised in the programme for government. Sinn Féin will be bringing forward amendments at committee stage to provide for multi-annual funding and for staffing frameworks because that is the right thing to do. This is the only way that proper planning can take place and efficiencies can be made. I will also take this opportunity to ask you to please address persistent staffing issues across the HSE. The government claims that the recruitment embargo in the HSE has been lifted since last July, but there have been no positive effects in Mayo, Minister. I met with the INMO last week again and in fact I have very direct experience of being in Mayo University Hospital in ED in the last number of weeks and I want to commend the staff there for the job that they're doing. But expecting them to do that job, there isn't enough of them. I know you won't answer me back and I know you can't in this situation. Please let me tell you that there isn't enough of them. So the INMO are telling untruths then. They're telling untruths in that they say there aren't safe staffing levels. You can hold up whatever you like. Minister, you can hold up whatever you like. But I am telling you that there aren't enough staff in Mayo University Hospital in the ED section to provide safe service there. I am telling you that. I'm also telling you that it's a deterrent for so many people who want to go to hospital and probably need to go to hospital, but they want to do everything to stay out of hospital. And those nurses and those staff are absolutely run off their feet. And expecting them to operate on a corridor with trolleys each side of it, patients in pain, moaning and looking for help and trying to get a bed when they cannot get a bed. And you're telling me that they have enough staff. Minister, they don't have enough staff. Let me tell you that. And I am very grateful for the service that they provide. But there isn't enough of them there. So whatever you're doing, I would ask you to address that, please, and to look. We looked here last night, Minister, and I wasn't even going to bring this up, but you saw the women in the balcony there last night from endometriosis. You pointed out phantom clinics that they were to go to, to all these places, and there were so many services about the place, you know, that they just weren't going to them. Well, why are those women in such pain then? Do they, and you talked about them choosing to go to, choosing to go abroad when the services aren't here for them. You need to recognise, Minister, what's happening on the ground. You can shake your head all you want, but you need to recognise what is happening. Those women that were here last night, that their health deteriorating, deteriorating. The organs in their body being eaten by endometriosis, and you're saying that we have enough services and support. I'm sorry, but you need to get with the programme. Deputy Rice.
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