'Staff levels, not money' delaying hospital opening

The Irish Nurses Organisation today dismissed suggestions that delays in opening the new Cork University Maternity Hospital were due to a demand for more money.

Despite admitting it looked for a €1,000 payment for midwives and nurses to make the move to the new facility more attractive, the INO maintained that safe staffing levels were a priority.

The opening of Cork University Maternity Hospital, which was due to take place on Saturday, has been postponed for a week amid a bitter dispute between management and unions over alleged under-staffing.

All patients were contacted over the weekend by hospital staff to inform them of the change.

However the INO, which is due to meet the National Implementation Board this morning, stressed that the Health Service Executive (HSE) had failed to provide adequate staffing.

“It is not about money,” said INO general secretary Liam Doran.

“The Labour Court recommendations were rejected by 98% of members. We then became involved with further discussions with the HSE and in that we tried to make it more attractive to move to the unit. That was also rejected by the same 98%.

“From Friday night and all day Saturday the issue of money was not the problem. The only issue that was the problem was the failure of the HSE in the south, in Cork, to deliver the 375 qualified nurses and midwives that had been recommended by the Labour Court.

“The HSE went to the Labour Court and said they have 375 staff. On Friday they admitted they only had 315 staff, and that was the sole reason why our members rejected it.”

Mr Doran said discussions over the weekend included pushing for emergency recruitment drives in Dublin, London and Birmingham, while nursing staff rejected offers to reduce the number of patients to 128, just four more than current facilities at Erinville, St Finbarr's and Bons Secours hospitals.

On Saturday, Health Service Executive chief executive Professor Brendan Drumm claimed the dispute centred on nurse and midwife relocation payment demands of up to €5,000. This was denied by the INO.

“Our members still say that the staffing levels being proposed for the new facility, a beautiful new facility that our members want to work in, have got to be safe,” he continued.

“We are respecting our midwife members and nurse members on the ground who say the 375 figure can be reduced if you close beds, but our members say closing beds in a demand-led service like obstetrics is very difficult to do.

“It was about standards of care and staffing levels and I stand over it and support it and I ask others to stand over it and support the midwives.”