A&E nurses need colleagues’ help to deal with overcrowding

Emergency department nurses are not getting the help they need from their colleagues on the wards to deal with overcrowding, an emergency consultant has claimed.

Feargal Hickey from the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine said doctors in EDs shared the same frustration as the nurses they worked with.

He said he was glad the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) had taken on the cause of ED nurses — accounting for about 5% of the group’s membership — who feel their colleagues on the wards could be more helpful.