Hospital workers call for higher ratio of nurses to patients

Claire O’Sullivan in Killarney

Citing Australia, where every four patients in a busy urban hospital are entitled to one nurse and where smaller rural hospitals have 6:1 ratios, delegates in Killarney, Co Kerry, said such a move had led to 4,000 Australian nurses returning to the health services and reduced sick leave.

The delegates said such a move was “even more important” in the wake of revelations that health service employers wanted to put extra beds into acute hospitals wards.

“It is about time we had legislation on this. Just look at the childcare regulations where every three babies must be looked after by one childcare worker.

“At our hospital in Letterkenny, we have two nurses looking after 12 babies,” said Sarah Kenny from the Donegal branch.

INO president Madeline Speirs said that whenever she toured the country, nurses repeatedly complained that they had too many patients.

“They are saying that they cannot stand over the care they are giving. “They want a safe hospital but they believe they are looking after too many patients to ensure this,” she said.

Nurses Ann Gallagher, from Meath, and Maria Quinn, from Leitrim, spoke about one nurse having to single-handedly look after 37 and 40 elderly patients overnight.

A position paper was also published by the INO yesterday which lays out the framework to ensure that all nurses are free to take on a “whisteblowing” role if they detect something of concern in the workplace.

According to the union, there have been too many incidents where nurses had serious concerns about practices in the workplace but, for fear of retribution, didn’t speak out. The document is seekinglegislation to be enacted which will provide protection to the whistleblower from victimisation or penalisation.

It calls on members to approach the INO before making a report and says that an independent person should sit on any investigation committee.

Motions were also agreed calling for a dedicated and qualified infection control person in every hospital in the country to control MRSA and other infections.