INMO to ballot for industrial action due to 'unsafe' staff numbers

The INMO will ballot on a location-by-location basis

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has sanctioned a campaign of industrial action, saying it is doing so "in pursuance of safe staffing."

The group, which tracks the number of available beds in Irish hospitals on a daily basis via its Trolley Watch initiative, has repeatedly called on the Government to intervene in recent weeks to take some pressure off the health system and staff.

For the last month, the Executive Council of INMO has met and consulted with each other, with the outcome being the sanctioning of a campaign on Friday.

INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: "It has been made very clear to us from at each meeting we attended in the last month that there is a severe staffing crisis in our hospitals. 

Nurses in each hospital have stated that unsafe staffing is the norm. This is unacceptable in regards of patient safety and nurses’ safety at work.

"Ballots for industrial action have been sanctioned on a location-by-location basis, as it is clear that the staffing levels in certain locations are enduring a huge shortfall. We know that many hospitals cannot keep up with the pace at which nurses are leaving to work in safer environments."

INMO President Karen McGowan said that the council is now calling for the Department of Health and the HSE to provide a "fully funded workforce plan for the coming winter"

They have put in a deadline before the INMO Annual Delegate Conference on May 3-5 in Killarney for the plan to be produced.

Ms McGowan added: "If this plan is not completed, a national ballot will be considered.

“Safe staffing should not be a pipe dream for nurses. Patients should be made aware of the severity of the staffing deficits our members are trying to work through. Hospital management in each location cannot keep trying to fill from an empty cup. 

"The expectation that we can run our health service at a less-than-safe staffing capacity must be challenged.”