Nurses vote unanimously for industrial action

NURSES in the emergency department at Limerick’s biggest hospital have voted unanimously for industrial action over staff shortages and the closure of 25 beds at the hospital.

Nurses in other departments at the hospital are already on a work-to-rule over the breach by management of local agreements including a commitment that trollies would not be placed in wards.

The hospital is faced with a budget deficit of €15 million already this year, the highest of any hospital in the country.

Strike notice was served last night for two weeks’ time after meetings yesterday between the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and the Mid-Western Regional Hospital management failed to find a resolution.

The INMO and SIPTU had asked the HSE to postpone the bed closures. Fourteen of the beds to be closed are in surgical wards while the remaining 11 will reduce the number of beds available to non-surgical medical patients.

A HSE spokesman said yesterday: “Management at the hospital met with the INMO and SIPTU nursing representatives last week to discuss reconfiguration of beds within the hospital and the planned total reduction in overall bed capacity of 25.”

The Government has told hospitals there will be no extra budgetary allocations, and HSE management has set about implementing cost-cutting measures which they say will have the least possible impact on frontline services.

Meanwhile, in the same hospital, staff at its medical records department also voted unanimously for industrial acton, claiming they are understaffed and that their working environment is so undersized that it poses a substantial health and safety risk.

IMPACT has requested an independent health and safety risk assessment of the storage facility and said they will seek a referral to the Labour Relations Commission for conciliation next week if necessary. Staff have been advised by their union not to retrieve any files stored unsafely. The union estimates this could apply to 30% of files in storage.

Members of the union working in the medical records department say they have “reached the end of the line” as discussions with management have been ongoing for two years but the situation is still deteriorating.