Nurses vow to escalate action over work hours

A NURSES’ dispute over a shorter working week will escalate unless the first step towards a resolution is delivered today.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) warned health service managers last night that nurses in at least one of three hospitals in the south involved in the dispute are ready to work to contract only if the nationally agreed 37.5 hour working week is not introduced in their hospitals.

INO official Patsy Doyle was speaking after a lunchtime nurses’ protest outside Bantry General Hospital in West Cork. Direct patient care was not affected.