Graduate nurses to be offered 62 jobs at UHG following impasse
The development follows concern that up to 70 nursing graduates at UHG had been left in limbo without contracts, despite having been offered positions during their studies
A total of 184 permanent contracts are to be offered to graduate nurses in the western region, including 62 at University Hospital Galway (UHG), following an intervention over the refusal to grant jobs to newly qualified staff.
The development follows concern that between 60 and 70 nursing graduates at UHG had been left in limbo without contracts, despite having been offered positions in specific wards during their studies before those offers were withdrawn.
The confirmation was provided by Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to Galway West TD and Minister for Education and Youth Hildegarde Naughton on Wednesday evening.
Of the 184 permanent posts being made available across the region, just over a third will be based at UHG.
The row over the posts had sparked fears that a de facto recruitment freeze by the HSE ahead of the budget would leave hospitals chronically understaffed, compromise patient care, and force the health service to rely on more expensive temporary agency nurses to fill gaps.
There had also been criticism that Irish-qualified graduates – many of whom had effectively been running hospital wards during their training – were being overlooked in favour of foreign-qualified nurses and left facing emigration.
Welcoming the resolution of the dispute, Minister Naughton said the confirmation from her cabinet colleague would “allay the fears experienced by the recent cohort of graduates”.
“I also want to thank my colleague, the minister for health, for her interest in this matter and the positive outcome of our discussions,” she said.
“Our graduate nurses are hugely valuable to our health service in replenishing the clinical workforce, replacing retiring staff and closing areas where there are nursing shortages and I am therefore pleased that this impasse was resolved in a relatively short timeframe.”