Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I received a response to a parliamentary question on the issue of public health nurses in Dublin Mid-West. I was slightly shocked at the response from the HSE. It said that, in that particular area, Dublin Mid-West, it had not recruited one public health nurse. It is a really damning indictment of where we are at if the HSE cannot recruit one. Zero have been recruited. There are obviously factors contributing to nursing staff, highly educated and highly motivated people, deciding not to go into this service. There has to be other incentives to encourage people who have been educated in this field to go back into public health nursing. Public health nursing is of enormous importance not only for infants, as I have mentioned, but for elderly people. If they are not getting that treatment in a primary care setting, that can only be detrimental to their health and to society.

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