Any escalation of the nurses’ strike could compromise patient safety, head of medicine at CUH warns

Any escalation of the nurses’ strike could compromise patient safety, the head of medicine at one of the country’s busiest hospitals has warned.

Dr Mike O’Connor, the clinical director of medicine at the 800-bed Cork University Hospital (CUH), and Care of the Elderly Physician at CUH and St Finbarr’s Hospital, said CUH was able to absorb the impact of yesterday’s 24-hour industrial action by members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) thanks to the cooperation of the union’s strike committee.

But he said further strike action, as planned by the INMO for February 5 and 7 next week, and again on February 12, 13 and 14, would put patient safety at risk.

“We support the nurses’ action - they have been treated badly and that is something that does need to be addressed. They need to be listened to,” he said.

The issue of (further) strike action, two days next week and maybe three the following, is not sustainable from the point of view of actually running the hospital at a proper operational level.

“One day of disruption like this, we can probably do, and do it safely. An escalation to two days and three days would be at the risk of compromising patient safety.”

Up to 800 outpatient appointments, 35 operations and 40 endoscopy tests were cancelled at CUH today.

Nurse Jenny O'Riordan, with her colleagues on the picket line during the nurses strike at Cork University Maternity Hospital. Picture: David Keane.

With up to half of all presentations to its emergency department (ED) from GP referrals, GPs were asked to delay such referrals until today.

Its ED, outpatient chemotherapy and 16 inpatient wards worked as normal as every effort was made to preserve essential services.

The city’s at St Mary’s urgent care clinic in Gurranabraher was closed and additional medical staff were transferred to CUH, backed up by members of the Defence Forces.

Speaking on The Opinion Line on Cork’s 96FM, Dr O’Connor said services ran as normally as possible as hospital management met the INMO’s local strike committee every 90-minutes to discuss emerging “pressure points”.

He said the strike committee had been “profoundly helpful” and had redeployed or added nursing staff to key areas when and as issues emerged.

“They have been extremely helpful in helping us run the hospital,” he said.

And he said patients whose appointments were cancelled won’t go to the back of the queue, with their appointments rescheduled for clinics over the coming weeks.