Emergency department nurses to strike in seven hospitals

Emergency department nurses are to stop work for two hours at Beaumont and six other other hospitals next Thursday.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation decided to go ahead with the two-hour rolling stoppages following a meeting of its executive council on Thursday.

Minister for Health Leo Varadkar said he hoped the planned work stoppage will not go ahead. Everything that could reasonably be done would be done to convince nurses that management, the HSE and Government are committed to the agreement negotiated before Christmas, he promised.

Aside from Beaumont, which has been worst hit by overcrowding this week, the other hospitals that will be affected by the industrial action are Tallaght Hospital, University College Hospital Galway, Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore, Cork’s Mercy University Hospital, Cavan General Hospital and University Hospital Waterford.

The strike is likely to result in widespread cancellation of non-urgent appointments and procedures in other past of the affected hospitals, as well as exacerbating conditions in the emergency departments.

Sinn Féín TD Pearse Doherty described the trolley crisis as a national scandal, adding: “If Leo Varadkar is not up for the job, then he should just go”.

Mr Varadkar brushed off the call for his resignation but admitted “we are certainly nowhere where we should be” given the “enormous efforts” made to ease overcrowding in the last year.

The Minister said the problem could not be fixed in a year and what was needed was a five-year programme of sustained investment in hospitals, primary care and social care.

The strike is going ahead following the decision by emergency department nurses in the INMO to reject a package of measures negotiated between the union and the HSE aimed at easing overcrowding and incentivising the recruitment of more nurses.

The deal brokered by the Workplace Relations Commission was rejected by a margin of 58 per cent to 42 per cent.

Pressure on emergency departments nationally eased today, with 427 patients waiting for admission compared to 473 on Wednesday. Trolley numbers at Beaumont, still the worst affected hospital, dropped from 54 to 39.

The first significant rise in flu cases this winter is causing some concern; in Beaumont alone, there were five flu cases. The winter vomiting bug is exacerbating conditions in Tullamore and other hospitals.

Beaumont has undertaken a number of measures designed to alleviate pressure on its emergency department, where attendances are running up to twice normal levels.

The HSE has advised GPs working in the its catchment area in Dublin to refer patients with minor injuries to a private clinic due to severe overcrowding at the hospital’s emergency department.

From Thursday patients with minor injuries from the area are being referred to the Smithfield Rapid Injury Clinic, which already provides care and treatment for minor injuries for the Mater Hospital.

Beaumont Hospital has asked people not to come to attend its emergency department unless absolutely necessary.

It said the department was seeing a high volume of older people, many of whom have respiratory or flu-like symptoms.

The hospital also says it is accelerating the discharge of up to 60 older patients to the community, though this is conditional on adequate care arrangements being available outside the hospital.

The hospital went off call for a number of hours on Thursday due to the level of overcrowding being experienced.