Emergency department nurses across the State have voted overwhelmingly to strike from next month over chronic overcrowding and understaffing. It will be a national campaign involving all of the country’s EDs.
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INMO general secretary Liam Doran said that this strike action is a direct result of the Government’s failure to recognise the “overcrowding crisis and to allocate the necessary resources to properly address it”.
Further days of strike action will take place in the New Year, leading to a nationwide strike involving all of the country’s emergency departments, the INMO said.
Nurses say that Emergency Departments are overcrowded and understaffed and that they feel ignored by the government and management.
Additional, separate nursing staff to look after admitted patients who are on trolleys.
Tony O’Brien said health service management was keen to use the State’s industrial relations machinery to ensure industrial action by members of the INMO did not go ahead.
Proper, full and 24/7 implementation of agreed escalation policies to minimise overcrowding in both Emergency Departments and wards.
Previously, the organisation warned that if the HSE did not move to address a list of serious concerns by this month, it would undertake a ballot of its members.
Figures released by the INMO show 79,000 patients were left waiting on trolleys since the beginning of the year up until the end of October. This is a jump of 26% when compared to the same period past year and 36% when compared to the same period in 2013.
According to the INMO, there are 339 patients waiting on trolleys in hospitals nationwide today – with 37 of these reportedly at St. Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin.
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This morning, there were 17 people being treated on trolleys at UHL.
