Union and minister lash HSE for memo

A controversial memo advising nurses of their right to remove “trespassing” public patients from acute hospital beds when others are more in need has been withdrawn by the HSE.

Yesterday both Health Minister Simon Harris and Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) general secretary Liam Doran condemned the memo written by the HSE’s legal advisers and issued to its national director of acute hospitals, Liam Woods, on October 11.

The memo outlines how a patient’s right to be on a hospital premises “is merely a licence and once that has been abused, the nurse is also legally entitled to remove the person as a trespass, using minimum force to do so”.