Emergency Department nurses at of Mayo University Hospital are to take industrial action next month in a dispute over union claims of inadequate staffing.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has served notice of the action, which would initially involve a work-to-rule. It said persistent attempts to address staff shortages with management had failed and that existing numbers continued to fall short of what was deemed safe for nurses and patients.
The emergency department has 45 nurses available for rostering, according to the union. It said that was 10 short of what was required under existing staffing plans and 28 below the level required under the Health Service Executive’s Safe Staffing Framework.
“Our members are working in a department that is persistently overcrowded and chronically understaffed,” said INMO assistant director of industrial relations for the west, Colm Porter.
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“[They] are very disappointed that it has come to this, but unfortunately, they feel the risks being posed to patients due to ongoing understaffing problems have become too significant and that their concerns are not being taken seriously.”
In response, the HSE West and North West said it had been engaging with the INMO on the issues involved at the Workplace Relations Commission over a number of weeks.
“We remain open to further engagement with our staff and their representatives.”
It said the hospital was in the process of filling a number of vacancies and seeking to recruit the additional personnel required to meet the numbers set out in the National Safer Staffing Framework for Emergency Departments.
Asked about the situation last month by Aontú TD Paul Lawless, Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said there was no shortage of staff at the hospital but that staffing within it was “imbalanced”.
“Let us not confuse ourselves; this is not a staffing issue in Mayo hospital. It has one of the best staffing ratios of all of the model three hospitals. What is not happening is that this is not translating from a patient flow perspective into making sure the patients are safe and the staff in the emergency department are appropriately supported to make sure they can do their jobs in the way they need to do them.”
Latest HSE figures for the hospital suggest that, in the seven months to the end of July, just 31 per cent of patients attending the emergency department were seen within six hours. This compared with a national average of 37 per cent and had dropped to 28.5 per cent in May.
