Press release - Senator Fidelma Healy Eames
Public Health Nurses are the eyes and ears of our health service - Healy Eames
Public health nurses represent the best investment for the State in order to keep older people out of hospital
Fine Gael Senator for Galway West, Fidelma Healy Eames, has highlighted the crucial role played by public health nurses in delivering health services. Senator Healy Eames, who is a patron of the Institute of Community Health Nurses (ICHN), made her comments yesterday (Thursday) during the first ever Public consultation with older people in the Seanad.
“During yesterday’s consultation in the Seanad, General Secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, Liam Doran, made the crucial point that investment in public health nurses is the most effective way of keeping older people out of hospital. I concur with him entirely.
“Public health nurses are best placed to identify health risks and offer support and treatment in their own homes. In doing so they are preventing people from having to go to hospital. The value in health and indeed economic terms for the individuals and the Exchequer is inestimable.
“Public health nurses should be viewed as 'multipliers' of health. They visit 10,000 families per day and are present at key life moments. As the State's eyes and ears, we need to remind ourselves of the value of the service they provide. We would be foolish to overlook the huge impact of the work they do. It makes economic sense to sustain this workforce to deliver home care and reduce the costs of older people in acute or long term care.”
