Health staff told to get tough
The nine-point plan, distributed to delegates attending the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) AGM in Killarney, Co Kerry, also instructs health workers to advise employers who breach work contracts that any impact on patient care is their responsibility; to call for a risk assessment where it is proposed to end temporary work contracts; and to report for work but not go on duty if they believe staffing levels are unsafe.
Union members have also been advised that, where they disobey the Health Service Executive in the interests of patient safety, the union will support them.
The INO has also cut from 21 to seven the number of days’ notice of industrial action it will give the HSE.
Yesterday Liam Doran, general secretary of the INO, said the directive was issued in the context of 18 months of cutbacks and the recent recruitment embargo which “seriously compromised patient care”.
He said 1,000 posts had been lost in the health service in the past 18 months; the number of patients on trolleys in the last week of April was 64% higher than in April 2007; 1,050 nurses will graduate at the end of the month with no job prospects; and 800 people who should have been discharged from hospital remained there because of a lack of step-down care.
In addition, 800 nurses were expected to retire this year, Mr Doran said.
Today the INO has tabled an emergency motion calling on delegates to ratify the nine-point plan and to authorise its executive council to take whatever action is appropriate to protect patients, posts and pay.
Mr Doran said this could include protest, legal or all-out industrial action.
