asked the Minister for Health the average number of (1) trained nurses, and (2) student nurses, per one hundred patients in (a) general hospitals and (b) teaching hospitals in Ireland; if he considers that this is adequate; and, if not, what measures can be taken to improve on it.
Ceisteanna-Questions. Oral Answers. - Hospital Nursing Staffs.
42.
Mr. O'Malley
Where general non-teaching hospitals are concerned there are 32.2 trained nurses and 11.6 student nurses per 100 patients. The figures for general teaching hospitals are 21.5 and 48.6 respectively. While these are the overall average figures, the actual nursing requirements of individual hospitals vary, depending on the particular categories of patients treated, the intensity of nursing required and the internal organisation of the hospitals. I have no information to suggest that the present complements of nursing staffs in these hospitals are inadequate.