Irish hospitals not using enough healthcare assistants - Siptu
Ireland has higher ratio of nurses to healthcare assistants than recommended overseas
Irish hospitals are under-using healthcare assistants, the trade union Siptu has said.
Ireland has a higher ratio of nurses to healthcare assistants working in public hospitals than is recommended by the Royal College of Nursing in Britain.
HSE figures show that publicly funded hospitals have 20,071 full-time equivalent nurses and 4,299 healthcare assistants.
That gives a ratio of approximately five nurses to one healthcare assistant.
The Royal College of Nursing in Britain recommends ...
