asked the Minister for Health if he will consider appointing temporary nurses who have three years full-time experience in hospitals to permanent posts.
Written Answers. - Temporary Nurses.
307.
The appointment of nursing staff is a matter for the chief executive officer in the case of health board hospitals and for the hospital authority in the case of voluntary hospitals. Permanent appointments to posts of staff nurse are normally made following advertisement and open competition.
It is not the practice of health boards to employ nurses in a long term temporary capacity. However, to accommodate a small number of nurses who had been employed in a long-term continuous temporary capacity, special competitions were organised in each health board area under agreements reached with the nurses' unions to enable permanent appointments to be obtained by nurses who satisfied the service criteria specified in the agreements. These competitions have now been completed. In the case of the special competitions for general trained nurses some appointments remain to be completed.