Lack of funding was not the reason for the shortage of intensive care nurses which prompted the postponement of Róisín Ruddle's operation at a Dublin hospital earlier this month, the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, confirmed today.
Speaking in Dublin this afternoon Mr Martin said the independent review into the circumstances surrounding the death of the two-year-old Limerick girl will include an examination of nursing shortages in its terms of reference.
"The terms of reference are wide - it is open to the review group to assess all issues," he said.
He denied funding constraints were behind the shortage of intensive care nurses at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin which led to the postponement of the two-year-olds surgery on June 30th.
Mr Martin said funding for all intensive care nursing posts was agreed under an agreement reached in 2001 and was now provided on an ongoing annual basis.
"The money has been in the base [health care funding] for the recruitment of intensive care nurses since 2001. That is not disputed by the hospital or the Eastern Regional Health Authority," he said.
"They didn't manage to recruit as many as they wanted to," said the Minister referring to the specialist nursing shortage at Crumlin hospital.
However, the Minister has been criticised by Opposition members and health care professionals for the failure to resource the hospital properly, a failure which they claim makes it difficult to retain specialist nursing staff.
Róisín's parents were not satisfied with a report into the incident from the ERHA for the Minister and asked the Minister for Health to establish an independent review.
The three-person panel conducting this review was announced yesterday including management consultant Mr David Hanly, a paediatric cardiologist from Guys & Thomas's Hospital in London, Dr Shakeel A Qureshi and Ms Kay O'Sullivan, the director of nursing at Cork University Hospital.
It is expected that the review panel will report in two months.
