The Health Minister, Mayo, Nurses and a ‘gentle correction’

The Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, has confirmed that 184 graduate nurse positions have been approved for the HSE West North West region, with 20 of those allocated to Mayo University Hospital.

This comes after recent uncertainty over reports that nursing and midwifery recruitment at the hospital had been put on hold because of budgetary constraints.

Speaking to journalists at the turning of the sod of the Sunflower Children's Hospice Castlebar, the Minister said the approval was sent to the Department of Health by the region in the past week.

She said a further 14 graduate nurse positions are also included at Mayo University Hospital, to make a total of 20 new posts when other specialist positions are included.

The Minister acknowledged that restrictions remain on recruitment because the pay budget has been slightly breached.

She said, however, that she had “real confidence” in HSE regional executive officer Tony Canavan and his management of the situation over the coming months and into next year.

“This is a region that is growing and we have hired so many additional people into this region right across from Letterkenny to Galway to Mayo,” she said.

“The only reason that there are restrictions on what happens next is because we’ve in fact slightly breached the pay budget.”

Plan for predictable recruitment

Minister Carroll MacNeill said a clear recruitment plan would be put in place for every region next year, setting out priorities for additional posts.

She said this would bring much-needed predictability to workforce planning.

“We know that retirements are going to happen. We know that nurses are going to graduate.

We know that doctors, healthcare professionals across the board are going to graduate,” she said. “We need a clear plan for who’s going to be recruited when.”

She said the approach would be a first for the HSE and would be “a different, much more predictable and much more respectful way for everybody to manage their business”.

She added that it would apply not only to the West North West but to all regions.

Agency conversions a priority

The Minister said another priority is encouraging the conversion of agency posts into permanent positions.

She said she met a staff member at the community hospital in Belmullet the previous day who has been working through an agency, meaning she is not a permanent HSE employee, despite the HSE paying extra for her to work in a role she wants to do.

Minister Carroll MacNeill said she is encouraging all regions to submit proposals for approval to convert agency posts to permanent ones.

“That will give better stability for everybody, permanent jobs and real predictability for the great people who are working right across Mayo who want to have permanent positions instead of agency,” she said.

She said the change would also be more cost-effective, with permanent posts costing about 33% less than agency arrangements.

“So why shouldn’t we have more people where we’re giving them permanent positions instead of spending extra on agency?” she asked.

The Minister said some financial correction towards the end of this year would help facilitate such moves, and that she expected two long-term benefits: better visibility and predictability for recruitment in the years ahead, and the opportunity to convert agency posts into permanent positions across Mayo.

Graduate retention

Asked about the number of graduates who emigrate, the Minister said the State invests heavily in training healthcare professionals and wants them to stay.

“The Irish state, the Irish people, the Irish taxpayer, we invest in our young people to become healthcare professionals here,” she said.

“We’re paying the college fees to train brilliant healthcare professionals and we want them to be in Ireland and we need to show them a measure of respect, which is the predictability of knowing that when they graduate that there’s a position for them, and that being organised much earlier in the year.”

She said she wanted to “gently correct” the narrative that nurses are leaving in large numbers.

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, the registrar and regulator of nurses and midwives, tells her that more Irish-trained nurses are staying in Ireland than ever before.

She also said working abroad can be positive. “It’s also true though that it is a wonderful thing. Irish people have always travelled all around the world,” she said, adding that the State benefits from the experience people gain overseas.

“The idea that everybody is leaving... is contradicted, I’m afraid, by the facts.”

Recruitment budget

The Minister told the assembled press pack that: “I have enormous confidence in Tony Canavan, enormous confidence in the region to develop a plan that shows me and indeed the people of the county what the priority recruitment is for next year.”

She pointed to the local injury unit opened in Ballina the previous day, which will begin treating patients within weeks.

It will start with 25 staff and grow significantly in 2027, and she described it as “clearly a priority”. Staffing the community nursing unit in Letterkenny, to provide step-down beds, was another.

“I think one of the things we’ve never really done before though is have that strategic recruitment plan on a year-on-year basis that shows who’s going to be hired as a priority and when,” she said. She said she, Mr Canavan and Anne O’Connor would be working on the plan, calling it “a big step forward”.

Pressure at Mayo University Hospital

Asked whether the work under way at Mayo University Hospital, and other planned infrastructure, would finally end year-round overcrowding, and whether investment in areas such as out-of-hours GP services was also needed, the Minister said the solution lay in “a combination of things”.

She said the hospital is getting a significant new emergency department development, with interim changes in the meantime to create more space. Staff numbers at the hospital have also risen “fairly considerably this year already”.

She described the Ballina injury unit as “really significant”, saying many people attend Mayo University Hospital because there is nowhere closer to treat fractures, concussions or minor injuries. “There’s 20,000 people a year going to Roscommon,” she said. “Now we have that facility in Ballina, closer to home, and it will mean that all of those people don’t need to go to Mayo University Hospital.”

She also highlighted investment in community hospitals. A design team has been appointed to develop a new 50-bed unit in Belmullet, and similar work is planned for long-term beds at Ballina Community Hospital.

“So we’re investing in so many different ways,” she said, including “making sure that we have more and more places in Mayo for people to move out of the hospital when it’s useful for their care.”