Hospital workers asked to join lunchtime A&E protests

HOSPITAL workers including doctors have been asked to join nurses in their lunchtime protests to highlight ongoing chaos in the country’s accident and emergency units.

The protests, which get underway next week at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin and Wexford General Hospital, will continue every Tuesday and Thursday throughout April.

Organisers of the protests, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO), said they had written to ICTU, IMPACT, the ATGWU and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) unions to ask for support from their health workers.

“We are also hoping to get patient support groups behind us,” INO deputy general secretary Dave Hughes said yesterday.

The INO will officially launch its protest campaign at its head office in Dublin next Wednesday where details of further lunchtime protests will be announced.

The campaign will involve lunchtime protests from 1.00 to 1.30pm, beginning with Beaumont and Wexford General and thereafter the protests will involve one Dublin and one provincial hospital each time a protest takes place.

The “Enough is Enough” campaign is in response to what the INO claims is Government failure to solve the A&E crisis. This is despite the commitments of €70 million by Health Minister Mary Harney towards the implementation of a ten-point plan designed to alleviate ongoing overcrowding problems.

Earlier this year, the INO postponed protest action at the behest of the minister to allow time for the benefits of the ten-point plan to kick in. The plan includes large-scale transfer of long term hospital patients to nursing home care, and home care support packages to free up hospital beds.

However, the INO claims it has seen no improvement in A&E overcrowding - yesterday it counted 200 patients on trolleys in A&Es around the country - and has opted to press ahead with lunchtime protests. The INO has also requested off-duty nurses to join in. The protests will involve all nursing grades and according to Mr Hughes, will not compromise patient care. A spokesperson for Health Minister Mary Harney said last night that improvements in the A&E crisis would follow in the coming weeks and months.