DONEGAL TD Charles Ward has praised nurses at Letterkenny University Hospital as “exceptional” in the care they provide, despite significant challenges facing the service.
The 100% Redress Party TD was commenting on the recent Health Information and Quality Authority report on Letterkenny University Hospital, which identified risks in the emergency department linked to overcrowding.
The report noted, however, that nurses were observed to be “courteous, attentive and respectful” in their interactions with patients, maintaining a “calm and reassuring presence despite the pressures of a busy department and long waiting times.”
Deputy Ward said this was consistent with his own experience at the hospital two weeks ago, adding: “The nurses were fantastic.”
Marking International Nurses Day, whose theme this year is “Empowered Nurses Save Lives,” Deputy Ward highlighted testimony from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation annual conference, where an emergency medicine nurse who worked in Letterkenny for 22 years described leaving due to stress, anxiety and physical demands.
She said she would return “in a heartbeat” if her health allowed -having at times been responsible for “30 to 40 patients.”
“This is pushing them to the brink,” said Deputy Ward, noting that more than three-fifths of nurses and midwives had considered leaving their job in the past month. Deputy Ward also voiced support for striking ambulance workers, describing the HSE’s failure to update pay scales over 20 years as “shocking”.