Nurses at Cork emergency department to ballot for strike action

Nurses working at one of the two surviving emergency departments in Cork City will begin balloting today for a withdrawal of labour over concerns that unsafe staffing levels are compromising patient care.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said the situation at the Mercy University Hospital’s emergency department has become “particularly acute” since the closures of two other such departments in Cork City and county — at the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital in July 2012 and at Mallow General Hospital in March 2013.

Among the issues highlighted by the INMO are: