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Private nursing homes say they are extremely concerned about the rate at which they are losing front-line staff to the HSE and other public health functions.
Human resource managers at nursing homes told RTÉ’s This Week that agencies working on behalf of HSE were “aggressively” recruiting their nurses.
Nursing Homes Ireland has called for a six-month hiatus in hiring vital staff for nursing homes.
In a statement to RTÉ News, the HSE said it “did not target the nursing home staff” and “did not want to exhaust any health services employee.”
Olivia Geraghty, human resources manager for the Sonas Nursing Home Group, told this week that nursing homes had lost a lot of staff during the pandemic.
“There was a lot of recruitment from the HSE. We received a lot of referral requests and resignations from our nursing home staff at a time when we needed to retain staff,” he said.
With Covid cases spiraling up, he said nursing homes need to be reassured they can retain their staff.
“We need to have continuity of care for our vulnerable residents. It is very worrying for us to think that this will continue in the weeks and months to come.”
Ms. Geraghty told This Week that she was able to retain cleaning and catering staff, but was losing key nursing staff.
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Mairead Byrne, the registrant in charge at Kilkenny’s Gowran Abbey nursing home, told this week that she had recently lost three key staff members who took jobs as community Spanish speakers.
“As I understand it, there was an agreement between HSE and Nursing Homes Ireland that they would desist from bringing in staff from nursing homes during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
She continued: “I am losing some of my top staff in the public health department. Staff are being pulled out of nursing homes as we approach the possibility of winter flu, norovirus, and the dreaded Covid pandemic. -19.. We cannot compete with HSE and public health. “
Others said it was very difficult to replace lost staff in the current climate.
John O’Neill, human resources manager for nursing homes at Mowlam Healthcare, said: “We can bring in foreign staff following proper processes and quarantines, but replacement takes longer. Other staff could end up working longer hours. But in In these difficult times, we must ensure that our staff are not overloaded. “
Nursing Homes Ireland CEO Tadhg Daly told this week that the reality was that they were losing staff due to HSE and other public health functions.
Daly said it was counterproductive for staff already working on the front lines.
“We have seen the tragedy of Covid, so there is a long-term systemic issue that we must address.”
He said he had raised the issue with Taoiseach Micheál Martin last week.
Mr Daly said that there are currently 36 Covid outbreaks in the nursing home sector.
In a statement to RTÉ News, the HSE said it “does not want to exhaust any health services employee in the public or private sector and is not targeting nursing home staff.”
He said HSE advertises the posts in a “transparent and open manner and candidates deemed to meet the criteria are eligible to apply.”
He added that the “Be on Guard for Ireland” campaign launched on St. Patrick’s Day only targeted skilled healthcare workers who are currently not providing healthcare.
The Health Department said the recent Covid-19 Nursing Home Expert Panel report had raised the issue of low payment rates in nursing homes and the need to offer contracts that would encourage staff not to seek employment. in more than one nursing home.
The Department added that € 92 million was being made available to nursing homes under the Temporary Assistance Payment Plan to help them cope with Covid-19-related costs this year.
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