Nurses and health managers seek to avert planned strike

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation along with health service management will today enter last-ditch talks aimed at averting Thursday’s two-hour rolling stoppages by nurses, in seven of the country’s busiest emergency departments.

The sides have again been invited to talks at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). Earlier this week INMO members rejected WRC-brokered proposals designed to address overcrowding, staffing and patient safety issues in ED departments.

Those included measures to boost nursing numbers in emergency departments and address overcrowding in hospitals. In rejecting the WRC proposal, nurses said they had no confidence in local management to deliver, on a 24/7 basis, the required changes to improve the environment for both patients and staff.