Nursing union to ballot members as 'shortages impacting patient care'

The union will begin balloting its members on Monday for industrial action on the 'large gaps' in nursing and midwifery in the wake of the now-lifted recruitment ban. File Picture: Kzenon / Alamy Stock

Nurse shortages in cancer, palliative, paediatric, and rehabilitation care are now impacting patients and could worsen over the winter, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said.

This includes “severe gaps in staffing” at University Hospital Limerick and Cork University Hospital in vital services such as maternity, cancer care, and palliative care, they warned.