Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 28 October 2004
30 Mr. Penrose asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the steps being taken to address the serious shortage of intensive care nurses at Crumlin children’s hospital that has led to the recent cancellation of cardiac surgery on two patients; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26308/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department is advised that the planned cardiac surgery of two patients at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin recently was deferred due to the lack of available staffed ICU beds. The beds due to be occupied by the patients in question were, instead, used to accommodate two emergency cardiac surgery cases that had to be carried out that day.
The hospital seeks to prioritise elective cardiac surgery and minimise the number of deferrals. However, priority is always given to emergency cases which are, by their nature, unpredictable, and unfortunately this may necessitate the deferral of less urgent cases. This situation is not unique to Our Lady's Hospital and can occur across the hospital system where emergency cases require admission.
The approved funded complement of nurses for the ICU at Our Lady's Hospital is 124. Currently, the ICU has a staff of 107 nurses. Because of the nursing shortage, the ICU is currently staffed for between 14 and 17 beds, depending on the case mix between intensive care and high dependency patients.
There is a continuing difficulty worldwide in recruiting ICU nurses, particularly those trained in paediatric intensive care. With the co-operation of the Eastern Regional Health Authority and my Department, Our Lady's Hospital has made significant efforts to attract and recruit nursing staff into the ICU, including: an extensive advertising campaign which has been undertaken in Ireland and abroad. The hospital has carried out recruitment campaigns in the Middle East, Asia, the United Kingdom and Poland in an effort to recruit nurses; the hospital is working with four nursing agencies who continually work to recruit nurses on the hospital's behalf; and post-registration paediatric nursing students are specifically targeted for recruitment to ICU.
In relation to the retention of nurses in the ICU, Our Lady's Hospital has a number of policies designed to attract and retain specialist nursing staff, including family-friendly work policies and extensive education and support structures.
While initiatives to recruit specialist ICU nurses have met with some success, and the hospital has made significant efforts to attract staff from Ireland and from abroad, it is regrettable that the target complements for these areas have not yet been achieved. However, I am advised that the hospital is confident that additional nurses will be recruited to the intensive care unit in the near future.
The Report of the Paediatric Review of Nurse Education Group identified that there should be various educational options available for those wishing to register as a sick children's nurse. In recent months, my predecessor announced the establishment of an expert group to develop a comprehensive strategy for the future of midwifery and paediatric nurse education. This group has commenced its work, and will be reporting to me at the end of this year.
Clearly, all possible measures need to be taken to reduce the possibility of the deferral of elective surgery at Our Lady's Hospital. However, given the unpredictable nature of emergency cases, the hospital cannot guarantee that elective cases will not, on occasion, require to be deferred.
