Leaked HSE report admits cuts have put lives in danger

Date Published: 04-Aug-2010

The devastating effects of recent cutbacks to health services in the HSE West area are laid bare in a secret internal report seen this week by the Connacht Tribune.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) document warns of serious risk to child health in the region as a result of the recruitment ban that has been in place across the health service since March 2009.

Staff shortages in the maternity hospitals is also posing an “increased risk to mother and baby”, according to the shocking report, while children are no longer being immunised against infectious diseases due to a shortage of public health nurses.

The 38-page document reveals that senior managers within the HSE are aware that the moratorium on recruitment and promotion “has had a direct impact on patient/client care” and a manager is quoted as describing the process as “uncontrolled downsizing”.

The report suggests that there is a “direct correlation” between staffing levels and patient mortality rates.

The Connacht Tribune today reveals that CPR training has ceased for health staff working with older people in Galway after 135 posts were slashed from the service.

The elderly are now at “increased risk of falls and adverse affects” due to cutbacks by the HSE and physical activity, social interaction and activities for older people in the care of the health service have been slashed, resulting in “ill health” and “increased dependency”.

There has been a rise in the number of labour inducements and caesarean sections at maternity hospitals in the HSE West region in an attempt to reduce the duration of stays as “activity far outweighs staffing levels”.

Some 96% of children due to be immunised against TB have not been vaccinated against the disease because public health nurses have been unable to make targets. More than half of the children due to receive an MMR jab have also yet to do so.

See full story and indepth reports in this week’s Connacht Tribune.