Nurses warned they cannot work unless registered

Over 64,000 nurses and midwives have been warned they will not be able to work if they withhold their registration fee, an action urged by their union.

The warning is made in a letter sent out this week by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland to accompany renewal notices seeking payment of the annual registration fee.

A 50 per cent increase in the fee for next year is the focus of an increasingly bitter row between the regulator board and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), which plans to picket the next meeting of the board in Blackrock, Dublin, this month.

The union says the action is being taken over the board’s decision to increase the registration fee for nurses from €100 to €150 without consultation or consideration of financial hardship. It has called on members not to pay the fee “at this time”.

In his letter board president Paul Gallagher says the decision to increase the fee was taken "after a democratic vote and much debate". He said Minister for Health Leo Varadkar had made it clear the board must be self-funding.

Two increases

He said while there had been two increases in quick succession over two years, they came off a low base.

“I would ask you all, irrespective of how unhappy you feel about it, to pay it as without registration you unfortunately will not be allowed to work in your profession by any employer.”

INMO general secretary Liam Doran said the decision demonstrated "a complete loss of contact" with the nursing and midwifery professions.

He queried how the board could serve the public “while completely failing to provide active, current and relevant advice and guidance to nurses and midwives in clinical practice”.

“The silence of the NMBI in recent years as over 5,000 nursing/midwifery posts were lost, workloads became intolerable, staffing levels became unsafe and the role of individual nurses and midwives to mentor their young colleagues is damning of itself.”

He said the board had “no difficulty” incurring millions of euro in costs presenting fitness-to-practise hearings against individual staff.

“No one understands how it can stand in judgment of poor practice but makes no comment about the resources and infrastructure that must be present to ensure best practice.”