Ballot on plan to end staffing dispute at Cork University Hospital

Cancer nurses at Cork University Hospital (CUH) have begun balloting on proposals designed to end a dispute over staffing levels on the oncology ward.

The proposals, hammered out this week at the Labour Relations Commission, have been recommended for acceptance by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), as a “first step” for the unit to emerge from the “restrictions” of the long-standing staff moratorium.

The union had sought a staffing review “to address the major advancements in clinical treatment regimes” since the ward opened nine years ago, and this is addressed in the proposals.

The issues of additional staffing and professional development are also addressed in the form of:

• One extra nurse on night duty;
• Education and training opportunities;
• Enhanced management presence;
• A concrete plan for the relocation of the current truncated two-ward system into a single condensed unit of care.

The site currently occupied by acute psychiatric services is earmarked for oncology. The acute psychiatric ward was due to relocate to a new unit last January which remains closed on foot of a row between unions and management.

Industrial relations officer Patsy Doyle said the oncology ward was “seeking to emerge from the restrictions associated with the punitive moratorium, where staffing levels in nursing were excessively curtailed”.

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