Nurses’ protest - Patients set to suffer from action

AS IF things weren’t bad enough in the country’s creaking health service, two unions representing more than 40,000 nurses have voted overwhelmingly for a campaign of industrial action.

As night follows day, and despite pledges to the contrary, patients look set to become the victims in yet another row over pay and conditions between nurses and the Health Service Executive.

Obviously, with an election looming, nurses aim to put pressure on Government to grant a 10% pay rise and a 35-hour working week, demands already rejected by the Labour Court. Both unions and management must continue striving to resolve this dispute.

While public sympathy will be with the nurses, a campaign involving work-to-rule, short work stoppages and lunchtime protests will prove counterproductive.

Such a course of action is sure to impinge on the most important element of the health service — the patient.