Nurses set to strike in April over A&E crisis

NURSES are set to stage a series of strikes from next month over the Government’s failure to tackle the accident and emergency crisis.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said the A&E situation had worsened not improved as promised by Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney.

INO general secretary Liam Doran said it was now “highly likely” that Tuesday’s meeting of the INO’s executive council would decide to launch a series of lunchtime protests during the first week of April outside all hospitals that continue to suffer overcrowding in their A&E departments.

The INO agreed to defer industrial action last month after Ms Harney said that she expected progress this month However, the organisation warned the minister’s promise of a significant improvement had to be achieved by Tuesday or it would launch its Enough is Enough campaign.

Mr Doran said he wrote to Ms Harney on Wednesday pointing out the number of patients on trolleys confirmed that, instead of the problem getting better, it continued to worsen.

The average number of patients on trolleys was about 280 in the first two weeks of March, compared to about 250 in the first two weeks of February.

“It is highly probable that the INO executive council will decide to activate the lunchtime campaign,” said Mr Doran.

Janette Byrne of Patients Together urged people to join their lunchtime protest outside the Mater Hospital in Dublin today: “People need to come out with us. There is no point moaning about the health service and doing nothing,” she said.

“We are all to blame because we are letting the Government away with the disgusting and degrading conditions in our hospitals across the country.”

Ms Byrne, who is recovering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, said she planned to disband Patients Together at the end of next month if the group did not get the support she believed they should be getting.

“We’re just two families. We have no funding and it is costing us a fortune to keep the campaign going.”

Labour’s Joe Costello, who will join the protest, said the A&E crisis was reaching breaking point.