HSE withdraws health care assistant job offers for Tullamore Hospital

THE Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore has confirmed to Independent Carol Nolan that it has had to withdraw offers of permanent Health Care Assistant positions at the Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore (MRHT) as a direct result of the Health Service Executive (HSE) recruitment embargo.

The outgoing TD for Offaly said she had been pursuing the matter on behalf of a number of constituents who had been told they had successfully completed interviews for the positions in May, 2024.

MRHT now says however that the conditions outlined in the HSE HR Pay and Numbers Strategy has meant that it is no longer in a position to allow the successful candidates to start in their roles:

“It is now crystal clear that despite all the rhetoric about record investment in our health service that our hospitals continue to operate with one hand behind their backs,” the outgoing Independent TD said.

“If the positions were advertised then it is clear they were urgently needed. It now seems to be the case that Tullamore is being told it will simply have to get on with inadequate staffing levels, thereby adding even more pressure on to the shoulders of existing staff.”

“If you go to any number of agency or non-HSE recruitment websites today you will see dozens of advertisements for temporary and permanent health care assistant roles. Yet our own Government and the States health service cannot match these offers even with a €25 billion budget? Something is deeply wrong here.”

“There are capable and skilled people who want to work in the HSE and who want to bring their talents to Tullamore. The fact that they are being denied this due a recruitment embargo at a time of chronic need is shameful and it needs to be reversed,” the Independent TD concluded.