Although nurses and midwives are exempt from the recently announced HSE recruitment freeze, an embargo on recruitment among healthcare workers will have a direct impact on their ability to deliver safe care, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has said.
 
The union has stated that the decision to put an embargo on recruiting more staff will add more pressure to an already squeezed health workforce, where staff are under consdierable pressure.
 
INMO general secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said:
 
“While the decision by the HSE to impose a recruitment freeze will not impact the much-needed recruitment of additional  nurses and midwives, it will add to the pressure that our members who are working in overcrowded and understaffed wards are already facing. 
 
“Our members will not be carrying out the roles of grades that the HSE will not recruit. Starving the health service of much-needed staff will send frontline healthcare services into free fall.
 
“We are about to head into a winter of many unknowns but one thing we do know is that the same old problems associated with chronic overcrowding will only be exacerbated by a lack of clinical staff on our wards."