Hospital boss says some Rotunda staff commute from Spain due to cost of living in Ireland – Irish Times

Many of the staff at Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital travel from Spain and Germany because it’s cheaper than living in Ireland, according to the hospital’s director.

Professor Sean Daly said the five staff members typically travel one week a month from their homes on the continent. While in Dublin, they stay in the hospital’s nurses’ accommodation, which dates back to the 1930s.

Some previously lived in Ireland but could not afford the long commute to a city center hospital, so they chose to return to mainland Europe and commute from there.

Professor Daly said the accommodation provided in nursing homes was “fairly basic”, consisting of a single room with a shared bathroom and dining space.

The home has 70 rooms, 35 to 40 of which will be used for short-term stays. The hospital has made proposals to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien to upgrade or rebuild accommodation.

“The current rooms are not fit for purpose, but if modernized they could go a long way in attracting skilled staff to work in the hospital,” he said.

In an interview with The Irish Times, Professor Daly described the devastating impact that the stabbing in Dublin on November 23 and the subsequent riots had on hospitals and their staff.

The mayhem unfolded on the streets surrounding the hospital, where emergency blood was provided to treat a five-year-old girl who was seriously injured in a knife attack. The girl’s mother said last week that the girl was “out of danger” and she had been released from intensive care.

Professor Daley said the events of November 23 “went from a relatively quiet situation to something absolutely terrible in a short period of time.” “I looked outside and there was a line of gardaí between the hospital and the disturbance. They kept us safe. God knows what would have happened otherwise.”

Although the hospital was not damaged by the riot, many of its staff, many of whom were from overseas, had to be taken to work by taxi the next day because they did not feel safe. Special security was deployed in the immediate aftermath of the violence.

Approximately 8,300 babies were born in the Rotunda in 2023, an increase of 1% from the previous year’s total. 17 of them were delivered on the night of the riot.

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