INMO considers industrial action as 621 patients await beds

University Hospital Limerick is the worst affected by far with 94 people waiting for beds. INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations, Colm Porter said they are getting more concerned about the daily trolley figure. Picture: Don Moloney

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) plans to engage with members about the potential for industrial action as trolley numbers surpass 600.

Just two weeks into November, today's figures show that there are 621 patients waiting for beds. This figure includes 24 children under the age of 16 who are waiting on trolleys in emergency departments in Dublin.

University Hospital Limerick is the worst affected by far with 94 people waiting to be admitted. It is followed by Cork University Hospital where there are 61 patients on trolleys and Sligo University Hospital with 46 people waiting for beds.

INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations, Colm Porter, said the union is getting more concerned about the daily trolley figure. He said the numbers are abnormally high for this time of year as we have not reached the peak of winter illnesses.

"We are going to be expecting record numbers of patients who are sick enough to be admitted to hospital but do not have a hospital bed," said Mr Porter.

"They are going to be looked after in hospitals that are extremely short-staffed."

In August, the HSE set new emergency department targets in its Urgent and Emergency Care Operational Plan.

The plan stated that the average monthly trolley count in hospitals will not exceed 320 patients waiting for admission at 8am each morning. When it was published, general secretary of the INMO, Phil Ní Sheaghdha was critical of the plan.

Patients on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick earlier this year.

"It is looking at a number and trying to massage and change the number and make it look a bit better, but actually not lifting the bonnet and changing what's causing the problem," she said.

HSE plans for more hospital beds are meaningless unless there is an improved recruitment and retention campaign because every hospital bed requires nursing and healthcare assistance staff, she added.

Last week, the HSE took the decision to extend the recruitment freeze—brought in to all categories of staff.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster told senior managers that consultant appointments, graduate nurses and midwives, and doctors in approved training programmes will be excluded from the recruitment freeze.

The INMO said they were blindsided by what they called a "disastrous" freeze that is "recklessly compromising patient care". It warned that it could lead to more nurses and midwives leaving their jobs to work abroad.

Mr Porter said the union would be considering any kind of action available to them.

"We are going to be talking to our members in the coming days and weeks around their appetite for taking industrial action," said Mr Porter.

We won't be shy in balloting them for industrial action should they feel that that is the only option available to them.

There are around 2,800 nursing and midwifery vacancies in the health service, which the INMO said urgently need to be filled.