HEALTH MINISTER JAMES Reilly has told members of Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) that hospital beds that have been closed will not be reopened until the State’s finances improve.

Speaking at the organisation’s annual delegate conference in Killarney yesterday, Reilly said that additional resources would be provided where a need was identified as he outlined the necessity of cuts the health service and the need to change working practices as a result.

“We need to use the full range of staff we have. Doctors have to let go of some of the work they have been doing historically because nurses can do that work and nurses have to let go of some of the work they do because others can do it,” he told delegates.

The Minister insisted that the number of patients on trolleys in Irish hospitals has been coming down but acknowledged that the figures are still too high.

Earlier this week, the government moved to deny suggestions that trolley figures were being manipulated by some hospitals.

Reilly said that the Special Delivery Unit set up by the Department of Health when he took office last year had been listening to experiences and concerns “from the frontline”

He continued: “I know that people are not happy about the budgetary constraints but we’re no longer in charge of our own sovereing financial situation and we have regular three-monthly checks with the Troika.

“So we’re under the spotlight and health, because it’s the second biggest spender, is particularly under the spotlight.”

Watch the speech in full:

YouTube: murielhaire

After the speech he faced criticism from the union’s president Sheila Dickson who said that nurses and midwives did not need a lecture from a government minister on the state of the nation’s financial concerns.

Some delegates also raised issues with the short length of the speech by Reilly, believing it lacked substance.

INMO General Secretary Liam Doran outlines the events of the final day of the conference in this video:

YouTube: IRLINMO

Read: Hospitals ‘hiding trolleys’ on wards, says INMO

Read: HSE recruitment moratorium ‘destructive and irrational’, say health staff

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