Nurses’ concerns ‘clearly addressed’ in state report

NURSES say their concerns have been clearly addressed in a Department of Health report on conditions in Limerick’s Mid-Western Regional Hospital.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and SIPTU were issued with performance diagnostic recommendations from the department’s Special Delivery Unit when attending the Labour Relations Commission’s conciliation conference yesterday.

The talks are being held to find a resolution to the dispute that nurses say came about as a result of dangerous overcrowding and a lack of resources at the hospital.

Nurses have staged four-hour work stoppages on three separate days over conditions at the emergency department. Five hours of talks last week failed to halt the industrial action.

The INMO and SIPTU, in a joint statement yesterday, said it was clear from the report that concerns raised by the nursing staff in the hospital’s emergency department were “very real” and had to be tackled.

The report recommends that a bed management system be put in place and that the clinical head of bed management must have devolved authority, responsibility and accountability for all the admission, transfer and discharge processes.

“Clearly, this indicates that the hospital management now has to take responsibility for timely transfers and discharges,” said the INMO and SIPTU.

The report also recommends that intensive management support be provided to hospital-based senior management and focused on performance improvement.

The Special Delivery Unit says urgent consideration should be given to the possibility of converting some day case capacity to support the emergency medical flow by reallocating services to other hospitals in the group.

The report points out that, with some improvements to length of stay and some reorganisation of existing capacity, the system could be brought into balance, greatly improving the likelihood of trolley waits.

INMO industrial relations officer Mary Fogarty said no more time could be wasted in ensuring that services were made safe for all.

Chief operations officer of the Special Delivery Unit, Tony O’Brien, said none of the recommendations should be taken in isolation nor should one be given prominence over another.

“They require constructive action from all parties involved in the provision of care in the hospital and should be taken as a complete package, designed to improve the patient care and experience,” he said.