Harney met with ‘silent and dignified’ protest
At the entrance road to the hospital, mainly uniformed nurses with placards were lined up on both sides.
The nurses, some with young children, remained in position for well over an hour at lunchtime. But Ms Harney did not speak to them as she arrived and departed from the hospital.
The protest was staged jointly by members of the Irish Nurses’ Organisation (INO) and Psychiatric Nurses’ Association (PNA).
Amongst those on the line was INO vice-president Sheila Dickson, a nurse at St Columbanus Home, Killarney, and a former Fianna Fáil town councillor. She said 11 days of the work to rule had passed and there was still no attempt by the HSE to address the issues in a meaningful way.
“We’re just showing we’re not going away. We are in this for the long haul,” she said. “The sooner talks commence the better for everyone. We didn’t want to go down this road, but we have been forced into it because of total inaction by the HSE and the Dept of Health.”
Ms Harney received a warm welcome inside the €3.8 million palliative day-care unit. She was greeted by HSE officials, Kerry mayor Ted Fitzgerald, Tralee mayor Norma Foley, Deputy Jimmy Deenihan and former Tánaiste Dick Spring.
The minister paid tribute to the Kerry Hospice Foundation, a voluntary organisation, for collecting an ‘extraordinary’ €3m for the unit. The €800,000 balance was provided by the HSE.
She said the voluntary sector played a big role in health delivery and, no matter how much the Government put into the health service, more voluntary effort was needed.
The unit, designed by O’Sullivan Campbell, architects, Tralee, is the first of its kind in the country.
It will also be the base for home-care nurses who provide care for 400 patients in their homes and district hospitals each year.
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