Government plan just encourages nurses to work in private sector, says SF
Sinn Féin has today called on the Government to implement a targeted investment and recruitment campaign to get the country's hospitals back on track.
With more than half a million people on waiting lists and warnings of dangerous overcrowding at Accident and Emergency departments, the Health Minister has promised increased funding in the budget for the National Treatment Purchase Fund.
However, Sinn Féin's spokesperson on health, Louise O'Reilly, said that more needs to be done.
"We have a problem with attracting staff, number one, but we also have a problem retaining the staff that we have within the health service," she said.
"The Minister has completely failed to get to grips with this.
"The National Treatment Purchase Fund won't encourage one single solitary nurse to come and work here, in fact the National Treatment Purchase Fund will encourage those very nurses to go and work in the private sector, where the Government are shifting all the business."
