Danny Healy-Rae: Praise for Kerry nurses and call for fair pay
Danny Healy-Rae praised the nurses serving Kerry and beyond, urging that they be properly supported and remunerated. He highlighted care at University Hospital Kerry and district hospitals, and raised concerns about ambulance staff under strain.
Danny Healy-Rae commended the standard of nursing in Kerry and around the country, telling the Minister that staff at UHK and district hospitals consistently provide professional, attentive care. He described nurses working through the night who knew patients by name and understood their needs.
He named University Hospital Kerry and district hospitals, and noted that Kerry patients also use hospitals in Bantry and Cork. The speech emphasises the practical, human quality of local nursing care across these facilities.
Healy-Rae recounted meeting an 18-year-old training as a mental health nurse who must travel from Kerry to Mayo to continue her studies, highlighting the determination of new recruits and the need to nurture and retain nursing talent.
He also expressed concern for ambulance drivers, relating the story of a 45-year-old paramedic who said he could not continue. The remarks link staffing pressures across emergency services with the wider need to look after healthcare workers and ensure appropriate pay and support.
Praise for frontline nursing
Danny Healy-Rae commended the standard of nursing in Kerry and around the country, telling the Minister that staff at UHK and district hospitals consistently provide professional, attentive care. He described nurses working through the night who knew patients by name and understood their needs.
Local hospitals and patient experience
He named University Hospital Kerry and district hospitals, and noted that Kerry patients also use hospitals in Bantry and Cork. The speech emphasises the practical, human quality of local nursing care across these facilities.
Training and recruitment challenges
Healy-Rae recounted meeting an 18-year-old training as a mental health nurse who must travel from Kerry to Mayo to continue her studies, highlighting the determination of new recruits and the need to nurture and retain nursing talent.
Pressure on ambulance staff and consequences
He also expressed concern for ambulance drivers, relating the story of a 45-year-old paramedic who said he could not continue. The remarks link staffing pressures across emergency services with the wider need to look after healthcare workers and ensure appropriate pay and support.
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Transcript
Comhairle, I'm glad to get the opportunity to raise my satisfaction and appreciation of all the nurses in Kerry, indeed around the country, but especially the nurses that I have occasion to deal with many times and again recently, especially in UHK, University Hospital Kerry, all the district hospitals like Killarney, like Leestowell, Cairns, Ivean, Dingle, Valencia, Kinmare, and indeed the hospitals that Kerry people go to, like over the hill in Bantry, and to the hospitals in Cork that many Kerry people use as well, like the CUH and the South Infirmary and the Barnes and the Mather, and all those. The standard of nursing that we have in this country is massive, I don't think they have it in any other part of the world. And I had occasion to be in the hospital the other night with a patient around 3 o'clock and they were working there the very same as if it was the middle of the day and they're doing their duty and nice and they knew every patient by their name and they had such an understanding of everyone's needs in the ward that I was in and it's great to have that when we need it, Minister. And we must look after them and I had occasion to meet a young girl, an 18-year-old, she's training to be a nurse, a mental health nurse, and she has to go to Mayo, imagine, from Midtown and Kerry to further her studies and she's determined and she will do it and she wants to be a nurse and I admire her for the determination that she was showing. These nurses, we need them and we need that they're seen after and paid and remunerated properly. Indeed I feel for the ambulance drivers who have to go out and strike and I met one of them the other evening that had actually given up. A young man only 45 years of age, he said he couldn't stick it any longer, Minister, and that's the gospel truth. But to go back to the nurses, I appreciate them, we adore the ground that they're walking and we appreciate them so much for the effort that they're putting in.