INO conference - Time to stepback from health abyss

Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney may well have dismissed the motion of no confidence voted unanimously by the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO), but it is an indicator of just how bitter the mood has become among the frontline healthcare staff.

The motion passed at the INO annual conference in Cavan may have been coloured by the current depth of feeling held by the IMO towards the minister, but it also reflected the exasperation borne by delegates caused by the ailing health system.

Apart altogether from the diary commitment which caused her to miss the conference and break a ministerial tradition of attending, considered a snub by the INO, the minister has fallen considerably short of what had become to be expected of her.

Of her own volition, she insisted on moving to the health portfolio in the Cabinet reshuffle more than 18 months ago, a move which was welcomed by the public in general and the INO in particular.

By so doing, Ms Harney not just indicated her readiness to reshape a decrepit health service, she insisted she categorically would. She produced her infamous 10-point plan to tackle the crisis in A&E units, as a measure of her earnest.

Instead of the health service being reinvigorated, during her time at health the A&E state of affairs has developed from being a crisis into a national emergency, a fact acknowledged by the Government.

Working in such intolerable conditions, the nurses are pursuing demands for a pay rise and a reduction in working hours, a package which the minister reckons will cost e1.5 billion and should be dealt with under benchmarking.

The nurses contend that there is no basis why they should be the second lowest-paid group in the healthcare system, nor why they should work longer hours than colleagues in the civil service.

Why the minister should take more than a passing interest in the motion of no confidence is that it could well be a portent of what may lay ahead for an already feeble health service.

Already, the INO general secretary Liam Doran has warned the Government not to test their industrial relations, while they pursued their claim through all procedures. That warning would certainly illustrate the mood the nurses are in and the rancour felt towards the minister and the Government.

Part of those procedures will see the INO in the Labour Court towards the end of next month while they plan to stage a national rally in Croke Park.

It may well have been rather precipitous of the minister to dismiss their claim peremptorily, irrespective of its merit, by describing it as unaffordable and that it would not be paid.

Before the health service plunges any further, it would be to the benefit of all concerned, and especially patients, if both sides stood back and adopted a more conciliatory position.