Nurses suspend work-to-rule at St Vincent’s hospital

Nurses engaged in a work-to-rule at St Vincent’s University Hospital (SVUH) in Dublin have suspended industrial action to engage in fresh talks.

In a statement, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) said the decision followed a request from the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) for nurses and hospital management to "engage in intensive conciliation".

INMO members engaged in industrial action on October 20th over “intolerable working conditions and inability to provide safe care to their patients” due to overcrowding in the emergency department.

The work-to-rule will stop at 8am on Thursday and last for the duration of the talks.

Philip McAnenly, INMO industrial relations officer, said the organisation will approach the new talks with the aim of reaching an agreed outcome, as the current working conditions for nurses at SVUH “cannot continue”.

“We believe that some improvements can be arrived at through the process set out by the LRC and we welcome their assistance in this regard,” he said.

The INMO previously said that overcrowding in the A&E department had prevented members from administering proper care to patients and that patients’ care and safety was being compromised “on a daily basis”.

According to statistics quoted by the INMO, between January and September of this year, 3,750 patients spent time on a trolley waiting for a bed, representing a 134 per cent increase on the same period in 2014.

The hospital said it had taken steps in recent months to combat overcrowding. It said the problem was not unique to SVUH and that there was a need for greater investment in step-down care for patients who no longer require acute care.