THE HEALTH Service Executive (HSE) wrote to An Bord Altranais, the regulatory body for the nursing profession, expressing concern at the actions of nurses in Sligo General Hospital after last month’s one-day strike.
HSE management had described the strike as “reckless” because of the nursing unions’ refusal to provide cover on the wards during the strike.
The Irish Timesunderstands its letter to the nursing board referred to the actions of the Sligo nurses as a group rather than to the actions of named individuals.
If individuals were named and the nursing board viewed the complaints to be sufficiently serious, it could conduct fitness to practice hearings in each nurse’s case.
The nurses, who are members of the Irish Nurses Organisation and Siptu, had taken industrial action to highlight dangers posed to patients by what they saw as unsafe staffing levels.
Further strike action was planned but then deferred to allow talks take place. Last week the Labour Court recommended an urgent review of nurse staffing levels at the hospital and said no further temporary staff nurses should be let go until the review was complete.