Over 850 new nursing posts are being created in Ireland.
The Health Minister has today announced a €25 million investment to boost staffing levels in the country's acute hospitals.
Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly has announced the funding for 854 additional nursing posts to fully implement the Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skillmix in all acute hospitals nationally.
The Framework is an evidence-based approach to ensure there are enough nurses in acute hospital settings, including Emergency Departments, with the right knowledge and skills to provide safe and quality care to patients.
The framework incorporates the different care needs of patients with the clinical judgement of highly educated professionals and evidence of impact and outcomes.
There are 20,000 more staff working in the Irish health service since the beginning of the pandemic, including 6,200 additional nurses and midwives.
Making the announcement, Minister Donnelly said: "2020, 2021 and 2022 have seen the biggest staff increases since the HSE was established, and we want to do more.
"We have been implementing the Framework for Safe Staffing since 2020. We started in our bigger hospitals and are now seeing the benefits.
"We will now move to implement this policy in all acute hospitals this year”.
"The Government has already invested €31 million in the Framework since 2020.
Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation
It comes on day two of the Irish Nurses' and Midwives' Organisation's annual conference , which Stephen Donnelly is due to address tomorrow.
Labour's Health Spokesperson, Duncan Smith has welcomed the news.
However, he is sceptical that the minister will actually follow through on these plans.
"It is one thing allocating money, and there is one thing actually delivering the workers.
"Will this be enough?
"We still have a long way to go to provide safe staffing levels across our acute healthcare settings.
"In a survey by the INMO, it says 75% of their members are thinking of changing their workplace, predominantly due to feeling unsafe."
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