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.