Bed cuts leave Limerick emergency department unsafe: nursing union

A SENIOR nursing union official has described conditions at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital’s emergency department in Limerick as “dangerous and unsafe”.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) industrial relations officer for the midwest, Mary Fogarty, was speaking ahead of the results of a ballot today for industrial action by 60 nurses at the hospital’s emergency department.

Ms Fogarty said: “The A&E unit is not able to cope with the reconfiguration of services in the hospital. The A&E nurses have huge health and safety concerns over the unit.”

The nurses commenced their ballot in response to the HSE closing down 25 beds in the hospital and over working conditions at the & unit.

Ms Fogarty said yesterday morning there were 18 patients on trolleys in the & emergency department.

The new Healthstat report on the hospital marks the emergency department in the red zone and confirms that over 20% of patients are waiting between 12 and 24 hours to be admitted, with a small percentage waiting more than 24 hours to be admitted.

Ms Fogarty said the findings “confirm what we have been saying about the A&E unit”.

The report confirms that the hospital is 22% over budget for the first six months of the year with a spend of €82.6 million — €14.9m more than the budget €to the end of June.

Ms Fogarty said she is to hold a meeting with HSE management on the cutbacks at the hospital today.

She added that St John’s Hospital in Limerick has also lost 25 beds.

Last night, the HSE Mid-West management team confirmed that there will be no change to the recently intensified reductions in agency and overtime costs as well as other cost containment measures.

Mid-West area manager Bernard Gloster said: “We simply cannot continue to spend money we do not have.”