asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health whether he is aware that the day staff in the District Hospital at Mohill work 62 hours per week and the night staff 84 hours per week, and if he will state what steps he proposes to take to ensure that these unreasonable hours of attendance are substantially reduced.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Hours of Work at Mohill Hospital.
Mohill District Hospital has 16 beds. There are no major surgical operations performed in the hospital and, consequently, the nursing duties are comparatively light. In small institutions where staff is limited it is difficult to make fixed arrangements which will give the nurses definite periods of free time without increasing staff to an extent which would be out of proportion to the volume of work to be done in the hospital. Since the Deputy was communicated with on the 10th ultimo in regard to this matter effect has been given to arrangements whereby the nurse on day duty is allowed time off on alternate days from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. This is the minimum free time granted, and where the exigencies of the hospital permit the nurse is given additional free time. The night nursing duties are rotated. I am in communication with the local authority to ascertain if further facilities can be granted.
Will the Minister take steps to ensure that the hours of the nurses who are, as alleged, and as I believe to be true, working 84 hours per week on night duty, are reduced substantially?
I find that the nurses concerned have made no representation in the matter either to the Minister or to the local authority. I suggest that they take this matter up in the proper quarter.
The nurses made representations to me and I submitted these representations to the Minister at his own request in this House. Now the Minister, in his customary form, pouts when anybody complains that conditions, for which he is responsible, are bad. I am asking the Minister the simple question: Will he take steps to ensure that their hours of work, which are really 84 per week on night duty, will be substantially reduced? That is a reasonable request to make even to the Minister for Local Government.
I have already answered the question. May I point out to the Deputy, who is apparently unaware of the fact, that these nurses are not State employees; they are employees of the local authority? I suggest, therefore, that it would be proper for them to address their representations to the local authority in the first instance.
In reply to what the Minister has said, may I call his attention to the fact that on the 10th January, although he appears now to disclaim responsibility for the conditions of these nurses, the Minister wrote to me in connection with the condition of these nurses and intimated that certain improvements in their conditions were being effected, these improvements being made as a result of the representations which I made to the Minister? Will the Minister now take steps to ensure that the conditions of the nurses in this hospital are brought into conformity with what is generally accepted to be reasonable conditions for nurses?
In my readiness to remedy any hardship which might exist, when Deputy Norton mentioned this case and set out the particulars, I assumed that these representations had been made in proper form to the proper quarter and had been unsuccessful. In these circumstances I was prepared to look further into the matter. I am not prepared now, however, to pass over the heads of the local authority.
In view of the Minister's unsatisfactory reply I propose to raise this matter on the adjournment this evening.