Nurses may strike over unsafe staffing levels
Brian Moloney and Caitriona Ni Chathain, attending the UHL protest today. Pictures: Brendan Gleeson
Overcrowded hospitals in Munster run the risk of industrial action by nurses and midwives after the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) agreed to take a stand against “unsafe” conditions.
Following an executive council decision, any hospital or healthcare site where INMO members are working can ballot for industrial action to achieve safe staffing levels between now and May.
Nurses at Cork University Hospital and University Hospital Limerick have repeatedly called for improved recruitment policies, warning they cannot continue to safely treat high volumes of patients with current staffing levels.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said staff shortages were continually highlighted by members at meetings around the country in the last month.
“Nurses in each hospital have stated that unsafe staffing is the norm. This is unacceptable in regards to patient safety and nurses’ safety at work,” she said.
“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,” said Ms Ní Sheaghdha.
Nurses are choosing private healthcare sites, GP practices and or heading abroad in large numbers, the union said.
“The INMO executive council is now seeking that the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive produce a fully funded workforce plan for the coming winter ahead of the INMO annual delegate conference,” she said.
“If this plan is not completed, a national ballot will be considered.”
INMO President and emergency department nurse Karen McGowan said safe staffing should not be a pipe dream.
“Patients should be made aware of the severity of the staffing deficits our members are trying to work through,” she said.
“Hospital management in each location cannot keep trying to fill from an empty cup.
The news came as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar today turned the sod on a “not-for-profit basis” 150-bed private hospital at Towlerton, Ballysimon, Limerick, to be operated by the Bon Secours Health System, which he said would help alleviate the overcrowding crisis at UHL.
Mr Varadkar said the hospital will be open in 2025 to “public patients” as well as those with health insurance.
A 96-bed block is currently under construction on the grounds of UHL, and proposals for a second 96-bed unit there are being considered by Government.
Mr Varadkar revealed the HSE was “exploring” the idea of “purchasing Barrington’s Hospital”, located in the city centre, for use a “surgical diagnostic hub” after the Bon Secours Health System vacates the building.
Mr Varadkar acknowledged the region was “under pressure in terms of health” but he remained “hopeful” there was now a “definite pathway forward for additional bed capacity”.
UHL has “very big problems with overcrowding and the patients don't get the kind of care they deserve or are entitled to”.
Seriously ill patients waiting for hours on trolleys was “sad” and “not acceptable” as it “can result in reduced patient outcomes as well as reduced dignity and privacy”, he continued.
“However, once you get through the access problems and get a bed, people get a really high standard of care here," he said.
Photographs taken from inside the UHL emergency department Wednesday showed a doctor having to squeeze sideways through a wall of patents on trolleys that were parked along both sides of a corridor.
Today, 72 patients remained on trolleys inside the hospital, which declared a major internal incident of overcrowding last month due to unsustainable levels of patient attendances at its emergency department.
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