Health crisis worsens as nurses warn of strike

HUNDREDS of nurses are threatening strike action following a decision by management to close beds and cut nursing posts at a Dublin hospital.

And in a further setback for embattled Health Minister Micheál Martin, doctors have pledged to step up industrial action next week after talks to resolve the three-week-old public health doctors strike broke down on Thursday.

In an angry reaction to the closure of 32 beds and the axing of 30 temporary nursing posts at James Connolly Memorial Hospital, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) has called an urgent meeting of members for Tuesday with a view to balloting on immediate industrial action. The INO represents 400 nurses at James Connolly Memorial.

The union said the loss of beds will mean more acute admissions through A&E, compromised care with patients forced to remain on trollies, consequences for infection control standards and added pressures on Beaumont and the Mater A&E units. The Mater is currently undertaking the closure of 115 beds to deal with an €18 million budget deficit.

A statement from the Northern Area Health Board (NAHB) said it had a legal obligation to deliver services within the financial allocated resources available.

It said the bed closures at James Connolly Memorial would start next week and the 30 staff employed in the two units where the closures will take place will be redeployed throughout the hospital to replace agency nursing and nursing overtime.

“While it is recognised that these measures will affect service delivery, every effort will be made to ensure that the quality of patient care is maintained,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), which represents the 300 striking public health doctors, last night accused the Government of bringing the doctors to the negotiating table under false pretences.

IMO president Dr Joe Barry said the IMO had been advised both publicly and privately that a genuine attempt would be made at such talks to resolve the dispute, but that the Department of Health had failed to table any proposals. GPs and consultants, who support the public health doctors, have moved closer to industrial action following the breakdown of talks.

In a hardening of its stance, the IMO strike committee has ruled out any future emergency response to dealing with the SARS virus unless the department’s chief medical officer makes a direct request to doctors via one of the emergency lines.

“This change is being undertaken to reduce public confusion caused by the Department of Health and Children’s management of the cases so far and to ensure best practice in dealing with cases,” Dr Barry said.

The doctor’s strike means there is no out-of-hours cover for the monitoring of infectious disease over the bank holiday weekend, at the end of a week which saw the death of a 61-year-old woman from Legionnaire’s disease.

Mr Martin claimed yesterday that there was a substantial offer on the table for the doctors, but the IMO has dismissed this saying the offer is related to benchmarking and is also part of the national agreement sustaining progress. The IMO says no improved offer has been made to the public health doctors since 1994.