Nurses threaten action over wards plan

THE Government’s proposal to take pressure off A&E departments by putting more beds into wards could lead to industrial action, a nurses’ union warned last night.

SIPTU's national nursing official Oliver McDonagh said the proposal would lead to more chaos and would contribute to the spread of super-bugs in hospitals.

"It's not something nurses are going to stand for.

Ultimately it may give rise to industrial action among nurses who will not stand by and see entire hospitals being turned into one big casualty unit," he said.

He was addressing almost 300 delegates, representing 6,000 nurses, at the union's National Nursing Convention in Cork last night.

Mr McDonagh said 2005 was shaping up to be the worst year on record for those sleeping on trolleys in A&E units but added that a few simple changes could make a difference.

"For example, the presence of an A&E registrar with powers to discharge patients without waiting for a consultant would ensure that patients could be discharged at any time, thereby immediately relieving the overcrowding situation."

He said the A&E problems were not all that was wrong with the health service and the conference will examine equality in the health service.

"We need to tackle the level of care of the elderly, the shortage of 'step-down' beds, the fact that the majority of people enter our hospitals through A&E units and the inadequacies of 'out-of-hours' GP services," said Mr McDonagh.

Working conditions and benchmarking are also likely to be major issues at the conference which runs until Wednesday. "Nurses cannot continue to be paid less and work longer than other health service professionals," he said.

SIPTU general secretary Joe O'Flynn last night condemned BUPA's threat to withdraw from the Irish market if risk equalisation is introduced and it has to subsidise the VHI.

"The risk equalisation principle is specifically intended to prevent one insurance company cherry-picking the younger and generally healthier sectors of the population and leaving older and more vulnerable sectors without cover," he said.