Public health nurses in Galway have criticised the "third world" conditions under which they are being forced to operate following "drastic" cutbacks in nursing supplies, including bandages, saline solution and sterile gloves.
Members of the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) have said they will not be able to provide essential nursing care to the Galway community due to the imposed cuts of up to 50 per cent in basic nursing equipment.
In a statement yesterday, the INO industrial relations officer for Galway city and county, Ms Cora O'Rourke, said the Western Health Board had imposed the cuts without agreement with nurses.
She said there was now a shortage of prescribed wound dressings. Patients would have to wash bandages and nurses would be forced to reuse bandages, "which is not acceptable by any standard". In one health centre in the city, there were five public health nurses with "one box of 100 gloves left to provide services to the end of the month".
In the same health centre they had no sterile saline for wound cleansing and had to use cooled boiled water. A cut of 50 per cent in incontinence wear imposed "greater hardship on the chronic sick and their carers".
A spokeswoman for the Western Health Board said the board had increased baseline funding but there had been increasing demand for these services, far above what had been envisaged. The board was "making serious efforts" to address the situation.