Limerick ICU nurses begin work-to-rule action over staff shortages

Nursing staff working in University Hospital Limerick’s (UHL) intensive care unit have begun a work-to-rule industrial action, in protest over “detrimental” conditions for patients.

Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (IMNO) working in the ICU will only focus on clinical duties during the industrial action, which began on Friday morning.

It is understood IMNO nursing staff in intensive care will not be working additional shifts or overtime hours, will not be carrying out admin work, or in certain circumstances other work such as transferring patients.

The trade union has said “unacceptable” nursing staffing shortages have created “unsafe” conditions in the intensive care unit.

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Mary Fogarty, INMO assistant director of industrial relations, said the industrial action was an “unprecedented step” by staff in the intensive care unit.

“Staffing in the ICU is currently operating at a 22 per cent deficit, which represents nearly a quarter of the required nurses are not available on the roster,” she said.

Despite this the hospital was keeping 100 per cent of the ICU beds open for admissions, placing serious pressure on staff, she said.

The work-to-rule represents a significant escalation in the dispute over staffing levels with hospital management.

Nurses in the unit were “very concerned” about staff shortages leading to a “potential deviation” from the standard ICU ratio of at least one nurse to one patient, Ms Fogarty said.

“The lack of consistent safe staffing in the intensive care unit is having a detrimental impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of our members working in this unit and their patients,” she added.

Alongside challenges in the intensive care unit, UHL consistently has one of the highest levels of emergency department overcrowding in the country.

The INMO has called for hospital management to temporarily close two ICU beds, until it has recruited sufficient, suitably qualified nursing staff.

This would ensure patients received “the one-to-one care that is expected in an intensive care unit”, Ms Fogarty said.

“Unlike other hospitals experiencing similar nursing deficits, management in Limerick have been unwilling to do this thus far,” she said.

“The decision to begin a work-to-rule is not one that our members have come to lightly but feel like all other avenues to resolve the issues that exist in UHL ICU have been closed off by hospital management,” she said.

A spokeswoman for the INMO said the industrial action would continue until ICU bed capacity was reduced to match available nursing staffing levels.