The general secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), Phil Ní Sheaghdha has said that nurses will tell the Minister for Health that they are “blowing the whistle” on delays in implementing Sláintecare.
Such delays are causing people to suffer, she told Newstalk Breakfast.
The INMO is due to meet with the Minister later this week when they will tell him that staff are “crying out for change” as emergency departments are now unsafe and “not good for health”, she said.
Ms Ní Sheaghdha said that Sláintecare needs to be implemented immediately as there was an urgent need for a “complete system overhaul.”
All the debate and delays should end and “they should just get on with it,” she urged.
Planning needed to commence now for measures to take some forms of care out of acute hospitals and into the community, changes like that would take years to organise and planning needed to start immediately, she added.
There should be more focus on step down services and care in the home for the growing numbers of older people, all of which would require years of “real planning.”
