A&E nurses threaten to strike
The meeting was sought by the Irish Nurses Organisation after nurses threatened to strike because of the chaos in A&E wards. Hospitals were forced to ask the public to stay away from emergency wards on Monday night because of a chronic shortage of hospital beds.
"Nurses are concerned that the overcrowding is dangerous for both the patients and the staff and the real solution is more beds," INO deputy general secretary Dave Hughes said.
An Accident and Emergency Forum, made up of health employers and the INO, was set as part of the settlement to the nurses strike in March. It was given the responsibility of ensuring full implementation of the deal brokered by the Labour Relations Commission. The deal also included:
a radical revision of the admissions and discharge policies in hospitals and consultant level involvement in the early management of overcrowding situations.
A review of bed management by an independent firm of consultants including the provision of step down beds.
A review of security arrangements to reduce the level of violent threats on staff.
However, a review of the country's hospital bed management policy, which was one of the central planks of the peace package, was only delivered to the Health Service Employers Agency (HSEA) on Monday.
HSEA spokesman Brendan Mulligan refused to reveal the recommendations of the bed management review until he has discussed them with the Accident and Emergency Forum later this week.
INO deputy general secretary Dave Hughes said there has been a mixed response to the new admissions and discharge policy. "We are however pleased that the review of hospital security has been completed and this has lead to great improvement," he said.
Mr Mulligan said he was surprised to hear that all hospitals were not implementing the new discharge policy because this had not been brought up by the INO before.
