Nurses agree to defer plan for action

NURSES have decided to defer industrial action planned for Tuesday after Health Minister Mary Harney said she expected real progress next month in resolving the accident and emergency crisis.

However, members of the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) warned it would measure progress by whether there was a significant reduction in patients on trolleys in A&E units. Yesterday there were 343 patients on trolleys.

INO deputy general secretary, David Hughes warned the “significant” improvement had to be achieved by Tuesday, March 22, or the INO would launch its “Enough is Enough” campaign.

This would involve public protests outside all hospitals that continue to suffer overcrowding in their A&E departments.

SIPTU nurses working in A&E units, who are also threatening to take industrial action, said they were disappointed that Ms Harney has so far not responded to their request to meet her. Industrial action was now a “real threat”, they said.

SIPTU’S nursing official, Oliver McDonagh said: “As far as I am concerned there is more to curing the crisis than just coming up with beds. We need to meet with the minister and discuss our plans and ideas.”

Ms Harney said she expected significant progress to be made on transfer of patients to suitable nursing homes and the introduction of packages to support older people after they are discharged from hospital.

A further meeting of the A&E Forum under the chairmanship of the Labour Relations Commission has been scheduled for Thursday, March 3.