Nurses demand increased security over new year

SECURITY must be stepped up in the country’s accident and emergency departments in the run-up to the new year when up to three-quarters of all cases would be alcohol related, nurses urged yesterday.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said security should be increased to combat drunk patients who intimidated nurses by shouting and spitting at them as they waited to be seen.

INO general secretary Liam Doran said that while the immediate period after Christmas tended to be quiet, the level of drunkenness in A&Es was expected to rise dramatically over the next four days.