Beaumont nurses to mount industrial action

Nurses at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin are to mount industrial action due to overcrowding.

Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation are blaming the move on a decision by management to put patients on trolleys in ward areas.

INMO industrial relations officer Noel Treanor said that when additional trollies are placed on the wards, nurses participating in the action will refuse to use telephones for purposes other than the direct clinical needs of patients.

The nursing union says the overcrowding in Beaumont is a symptom of the undercutting of frontline services at other hospitals.

“Following a meeting with management where we indicated that overcrowding the hospital was not a solution to the issue of admissions through the emergency department and with the prospect of trolleys being placed on wards for a second night running, the INMO have initiated industrial action aimed at sustaining safe patient care in an unsafe environment," said Mr Treanor.