The new national children's hospital could potentially face a shortfall of almost 400 nursing posts as a result of staffing proposals to be published shortly, the trade union Siptu has said.
Siptu said a new national children’s hospital workforce framework report would recommend that there be a ratio of 90:10 between nurses and healthcare assistants in the paediatric hospital when it opens.
Siptu health division organiser Paul Bell said on Monday that, if adopted, it would mean when the hospital opened its doors, there would be an immediate shortfall of just under nursing 400 posts due to this ratio alone.
"That is unacceptable for staff, for the children of Ireland and their families."
Mr Bell said the proposed methodology used to determine the nursing workforce had not been subject to robust examination and external expert scrutiny.
He said there was a very real chance the 90:10 ratio proposed would not be achievable given that 400 nursing vacancies would arise immediately on acceptance of the report.
Staffing costs
Mr Bell said that “aside from the fact such large numbers of qualified paediatric nurses may not be available for hire, significant costs will arise if the staffing skill-mix model is inconsistent with international best practice and norms”.
Siptu said the findings of a report on safe nurse staffing and skill mix in general and specialist medical and surgical care settings in Ireland, which was launched last year by Minister for Health Simon Harris, proposed that there be a ratio of 80:20 between nurses and healthcare assistants in adult surgical and medical wards.
“While adult and paediatric services are different on a number of grounds, Siptu representatives highlighted the extensive international and national research undertaken in order to establish and recommend the safe staffing levels for acute adult surgical/medical areas, and raised concerns on the apparent omission of a similar process for the national children’s hospital.”
Children’s Health Ireland said it was inaccurate to state there would be an immediate shortfall of almost 400 nursing posts as a result of the proposed ratio of nurse to healthcare assistant in the new report.
“This report delivers on the high-level objective of this project to forecast the future supply and demand of appropriately trained nursing staff to provide care to the child and their family, working in children’s services, across the acute hospital system. It also proactively plans how this demand can be met, to include recommendations on the supply of children’s nurses as outlined in an Implementation Plan.
“The recommendation on nurse to healthcare assistant ratio for paediatric services is different than the ratio for adult services. Further examination of the 90:10 nurse to healthcare assistant ratio is recommended to be undertaken by the Implementation Steering Group that includes all of the relevant staff representative bodies.”
