Working in Cavan General deemed ‘mission impossible’

Hospital staff at Cavan General Hospital used their lunch break last Wednesday (October 16) to express their frustration at what they say is low staffing levels amid high patient numbers.

Despite a 27.5% increase, amounting to 284 new whole time equivalent staff appointments at Cavan hospital since 2020, staff still stood outside the walls of their workplace in a public display of their grievances.

Representatives and members of SIPTU, IMNO and Forsa stood out in protest along with nurses, midwives, clerical staff, maintenance staff, healthcare assistants, porters, catering staff and other hospital workers.

A gramophone projected the voice of Lynn Coffey who is the assistant general secretary with Forsa in the north east and Dublin north regions.

‘What do we want?’ she shouted, to the response of ‘Paid staff’.

‘When do we want it?’ she probed, followed by a certain ‘Now’.

Some HSE staff members present expressed their concerns to The Anglo-Celt.

Nurse manager Anastasia Savshak described how “patients are coming in very sick” with “not enough staff to care for the amount of patients that we have safely.”

Anastasia said she feels under “constant pressure” at work.

“They’re [patients] not getting the proper care that they should be getting, we don’t have enough staff basically to provide safe and effective care.

“You feel anxious, under pressure, like you’re constantly chasing your tail,” she expressed.

“There’s a lot of demands constantly and you’re kind of stuck in the middle trying to provide as much care as you can and meet all the requirements and the demand.

“We just can’t split ourselves, you might have one nurse to 12 patients, it’s mission impossible, they can’t get the care that they need or deserve,” added Breege Moore who is a nurse at Cavan General.

Anastasia said her personal life is “hugely” affected by the shortage of staff.

“You’re constantly leaving late.

“You’re on shift for 13 hours and everyone says, you know, my god that’s such a long shift but yet 13 hours are up, 14, 15 hours are up and you’re still there.

“You’re crawling out the door because you’re just in bits, not fit to walk, to go home to maybe look after young children or elderly parents.”

Roisin Lynch is a Clinical Nurse Specialist as well a committee member of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation in Cavan. Her mother Geraldine is also a nurse and Roisin recalled growing up “watching her protest for better conditions".

“Yes they have improved but it’s not enough,” she stated.

“Sick leave is never replaced, we always seem to be working short. We’re a female dominated workforce, our maternity leaves are hard covered, it’s a never ending problem.

“We’re in earlier, we’re home later. it has impacted on our families, we’re bringing our problems home, we’re all stressed.

“Here we are protesting again for the same stuff - safe staffing to improve patient care."

Roisin said now is the time for action.

“I really don’t want my children growing up being nurses and being out on the picket line again, still shouting for what we need.

“It’s something I always wanted to do, I’m passionate about patient care and anybody that knows me knows I give 110% to my patients and the care that they receive.

“Regardless of whether we’re staffed or understaffed, you do your very best.”

Clerical staff member Candy High stood out in protest among her colleagues, she feels “the work is never complete".

“The other day I was covering four wards including my ward, there was no clerical staff except for me on my level, that was atrocious.

“Patients’ discharges are affected, patients’ transfers are affected to acute hospitals because it’s hard to get transport to acute hospitals through me because I’m overworked, my phones are going.

“Patients are affected as well as staff, it's awful.”

'Clear view' of staff levels - HSE

A press statement from the HSE laid out that, in June of this year, the CEO of the HSE welcomed the fact that they now have “a clear view” of the funding available for the remainder of 2024 and what’s required to maintain “existing levels of service in 2025".

At that time, the HSE also finalised a Pay and Numbers Strategy “which enabled the HSE to stabilise its workforce numbers and also allowed it to increase to 129,000 whole time equivalent staff by the end of 2024” which excludes disability services which was “unprecedented".

Lynn Coffey disputed the strategy.

“What they [the HSE] mean by a strategy is that they are saying that the hospitals are overstaffed, that your community services are overstaffed and I don’t know anyone else who can agree with that statement.

“They're certainly not overstaffed when you go in and you see waiting lists that are as long as what they are.

“When you’re sitting in A&E for over 24 hours to try and get through to get a service because there is no staff there.

“You have missed diagnoses because people are sitting waiting to see consultants.

“For instance if you’re expecting a letter from your obstetrician or your gynaecologist, you now know that there’s a delay there - not because people are sitting on their hands.

“People within that department are particularly short staffed and they’re moving in new consultants and expecting them to take up not only the work of the vacant posts but also now more work of the new consultant posts.

“It’s happening across all of our services within the HSE.”

Industrial Organiser with SIPTU Luke Bell said the organisaiton were present in Cavan to “call out the recruitment and retention issues” within the HSE. A statement from the HSE read: “The HSE respects the right of all Unions and professional groups to advocate; however, it is concerning that some have put forward an inaccurate narrative that the HSE is more influenced by financial considerations than patient safety. “That is simply not the case. We are very happy to have continuous engagements on safety and other aspects of workforce management.”