A&E nurses defer strike on overcrowding

NURSES in accident and emergency departments yesterday deferred a threatened strike after unions and management decided to conduct an audit into the recent hospital overcrowding crisis.

Talks at the Labour Relations Commission led to all parties agreeing to a review of policies and procedures, which precipitated serious problems in accident and emergency departments over the past three weeks.

Dave Hughes, of the Irish Nurses Organisation, warned, however, industrial action would recommence without further notice if overcrowding problems in A&E departments intensified.

The parties are due back before the LRC in four weeks’ time to discuss issues emerging in the audit.

The INO’s deputy general secretary asserted: “Industrial action will only be avoided if employers stick strictly with the terms of the agreement brokered by the LRC.”

He insisted the deferral of industrial action was a temporary measure.

The unions and health managers will jointly conduct an examination of the factors which led to the crisis in the A&E units since December 28.

Mr Hughes claimed management had completely failed to aggressively manage the admission and discharge of patients in recent weeks. The INO, he said, further believed the problem was exacerbated by senior management failing to maintain a round-the-clock eye on the A&E problems.

Brendan Mulligan, a spokesman for the Health Service Employers, said the primary aim of the audit was to ensure improved facilities in A&E units for patients and staff.

With progress achieved last year in resolving many of the difficulties in A&E departments, Mr Mulligan said industrial action would have been a retrograde step.

“Our system is not perfect but improvements have been made,” he said. “We regularly make the point that activity levels in A&E units remain high throughout Europe.”

The audit is to be completed before the parties resume talks.

The INO said the audit required active involvement of hospital chief executives and a comprehensive

examination of whether all the relevant parties, including consultants, senior management and support services, had fulfilled their obligations under the new admissions and discharge policy decided last April.

“The audit will prove who failed in their duties to ensure that

patients and staff arriving at or working in A&E departments were treated properly,” Mr Hughes said.

“We will monitor the audit on a daily basis in order to ensure a comprehensive examination of what went wrong,” he said.