Nurses demand extra resources before children’s unit opens

THE Irish Nurses Organisation has warned the Health Service Executive that a new children’s high dependency unit cannot go ahead at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital until all necessary resources are put in place.

Mary Fogarty of the INO said that neither capital funding nor finance to pay the nurses required to run the unit has been arranged, despite the HSE stating the unit is to open.

The INO said that before the unit can become operational 15.5 children’s staff nurses will be needed and that management structures, anaesthetic consultant cover and education and service protocols will have to be put in place.

The nurses organisation also noted the need for equipment purchases and training.

The INO has made submissions requesting the extra resources, following 18 months of discussions with senior management on the new unit.

Despite numerous requests to meet with the general manager at the hospital to help progress the opening of the unit, Ms Fogarty said a meeting has not been forthcoming.

According to Ms Fogarty: “INO members at Limerick Regional who work in the area of paediatric care are very concerned that HSE management are using unwarranted tactics to prematurely open this specialist unit without agreement on acceptable standards of care and resources.

“We are demanding that the extra resources needed to open the unit are in place prior to it opening, thus giving children in the region the same level of service as exists elsewhere.”

Meanwhile the Mid-West GPs co-op, Shannondoc, has decided to boycott the HSE’s primary care teams — unless the costs they incur to provide late night (red-eye) cover are addressed.

The 126 members fund the payment of doctors who come in from abroad to work night and weekend shifts, from five centres in the Mid-West, serving 260,000 patients.

Some of the doctors travel from South Africa to work shifts. Shannondoc GPS said they pay the highest red-eye cover in the country.

A spokesman said some co-ops receive red-eye cover assistance, and that the system was not equitable.