Nurses plan work stoppage due to overcrowding

By Jimmy Woulfe Mid-West Correspondent

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

NURSES at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital plan a work stoppage at lunchtime this Friday over the manner in which the HSE is dealing with overcrowding at the &emergency department.

The work stoppage will take place from 12.30pm to 2pm.

A spokesman for the HSE said it was being kept in the dark about the proposed action and could not say how it will affect the running of the hospital.

Up to 600 Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) members at the hospital were balloted on the proposed action.

The INO says new practices have been introduced at the hospital without any consultation and the changes have caused difficulties and extra work for nurses.

For the past few weeks, patients in the emergency department & are being moved to general wards to prevent overcrowding in the department.

The hospital management also want to bring in a new system which will enable nurses discharge patients who are fit to go home.

The INO has been in talks with the HSE on this issue, but say the consultants are refusing to "play ball" and open the way to facilitate nurses discharging patients.

Up to 44 of the hospital’s 530 beds, according to the HSE, are occupied at any one time by patients who are well enough to be sent home, but patient discharge is not being expedited due to outdated practices.

Nurses claim the hospital now has to cope with a big increase in emergency department & work due to the centralisation of accident and emergency treatment at the hospital from Nenagh and Ennis.

HSE national director John O’Brien said there has been a very successful transition of services from Ennis and Nenagh to Limerick. "There is periodic overcrowding which has to be addressed."

Mr O’Brien said the choice now facing the hospital was to "stay rooted" in the past or to confront "impediments to progress".

INO industrial relations officer Mary Fogarty said they had been working with management on the overcrowding issue since the changes to centralise emergency department & services in Limerick.

However, she said recent changes moving emergency department & patients to wards had been brought in without consultation and the extra patients in wards was causing difficulties.

She said: "There are excessive workloads because of the additional patients and no additional staffing and this is leading to delays in discharging and accessing beds for patients."

Ms Fogarty said & the decision to place additional emergency department & beds/trolleys in wards was a retrograde step in managing patient flow in the hospital.

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, December 16, 2009