Patient group urges support for INO strike

A PATIENTS’ lobby group is urging employers to let their workers join with hundreds of nurses who will take to the streets tomorrow in a campaign to highlight overcrowding in hospital’s accident and emergency units.

The protest by members of the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) will begin outside the Mater Hospital, Dublin, Cork University Hospital and Roscommon General Hospital at lunchtime. Patients Together is urging employers to give their staff the extra time needed to attend the protests.

The group’s founder and spokesperson, Janette Byrne, said she was one of the hundreds of thousands of people directly affected by the country’s disastrous health service.

People should not pass up the opportunity to show their solidarity with the nurses who are working in chaotic A&Es where patients are left lying on trolleys without a shred of dignity, she said. “The staff are taking to the streets in a desperate bid to make the Government face its responsibilities to patients and staff alike. We need to support them.”

The INO protests will take place each Tuesday and Thursday throughout the month, with one Dublin and one provincial hospital being involved each day.

The situation will be reviewed at the organisation’s annual conference in Killarney early next month.

The INO has written to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and all other health service unions seeking their support for their Enough is Enough Campaign. It has also called for the support of patient interest groups and the public.

INO deputy general secretary David Hughes said the number of patients on trolleys had increased since Health Minister Mary Harney described the A&E situation as a disgrace and promised it would not continue.

Mr Hughes said the protest was to show solidarity with patients on trolleys, to seek an early alleviation of their suffering and to reduce the excessive workloads on A&E staff.