Sir, – Phil NíSheaghdha, general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, says that we know how to solve the hospital overcrowding mess ("Hospitals brace for major surge in numbers", News, January 2nd). Needless to say, an increase in staff numbers is part of the solution. But instead of spending yet more money, "the HSE continues to enforce its rigid recruitment controls, starving hospitals and community services of the staff they need".
The World Health Organisation’s Global Health Workforce Statistics are interesting. One of its pieces of analysis is on the number of nurses and midwives per thousand of population.
That number is 8.0 in the OECD, 8.6 in the EU, 9.1 in the euro area, 8.3 in the UK, 8.6 in the United States, 9.7 in France, 10.3 in Denmark, 11.1 in the Netherlands, 11.5 in Japan, 12.7 in Australia, and 13.2 in Germany.
The number for Ireland is 14.3.
It is only fair to note that two high-income European countries show a slightly higher number (Finland 14.7 and Iceland 15.7), while one has a significantly higher number (Switzerland 17.3). But, even ignoring the fact that Ireland has a relatively young population, these figures do not support the thesis that we are short of nurses.
The solution to the evident problems in our health service is not more money. We have tried that. It is to manage properly the very substantial resources already provided by our taxpayers. – Yours, etc,
PAT O’BRIEN,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.