INO denies it puts patients at risk

THE Irish Nurses Organisation have rejected a claim made by a senior Accident and Emergency consultant that its policies were putting patients at risk.

Dr Aidan Gleeson, an A&E consultant at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, said patients should be the focus, not political gain.

“I am not blaming the nurses but the INO leadership have forgotten the patients,” he said.

Dr Gleeson’s comments followed the refusal by the nurses’ body to support his proposal to have trolleys moved from A&E units onto hospital wards to temporarily alleviate the beds’ crisis.

“There is a serious risk management issue and the INO has adopted a policy they know is causing greater risk to patients. It makes sense that in times of crisis wards would take a couple of additional patients,” said Dr Gleeson.

INO general secretary Liam Doran said the suggestion that the organisation would put patients’ lives at risk was reprehensible.

He was also surprised to hear Dr Gleeson’s suggestion because it had been tried in the late 1990s and had failed because it contravened health and safety legislation.

However, Dr Gleeson said conditions in A&E were also unsafe because of overcrowding. “We have a crisis situation and the hospital has got to share the load.”

Mr Doran insisted, however, that the organisation’s approach to the issue had nothing to do with nurses’ pay and conditions and everything to do with the level of patient care. “This organisation, and every nurse and midwife it represents had, is and will remain fully committed to implementing without delay each and every initiative which will actually address this overcrowding crisis,” he said.

Janette Byrne of Patients Together said they were disappointed that hygiene was still a big issue in crowded A&Es despite the assurance they got last October from Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney that it was one issue that could be tackled immediately.

The INO said they would be calling for immediate action to tackle the ongoing A&E crisis at today’s emergency meeting of the Labour Relations Commission.