INO conference to propose no confidence in Harney

Nurses angry at lack of progress in relation to overcrowding in hospital accident and emergency departments have proposed a vote…

Nurses angry at lack of progress in relation to overcrowding in hospital accident and emergency departments have proposed a vote of no confidence in Minister for Health Mary Harney.

The motion is to be discussed at the annual conference in three weeks of the Irish Nurses Organisation, which represents more than 30,000 nurses and midwives.

The motion, put down by the Letterkenny and Leitrim INO branches, expresses a lack of confidence in Ms Harney as a result of the failure of her 10-point plan to ease A&E overcrowding.

The 10-point plan was announced in November 2004, however, numbers of patients on trolleys in A&E units have not come down.

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Ms Harney recently declared the problem a national emergency and the Health Service Executive has established a special task force to work with individual hospitals to try and find solutions to the problem.

The expression of no confidence in Ms Harney, according to the motion down for debate, also stems from her "lack of clarity on how to address long-standing problems facing the public health service" and "her negative and antagonistic attitudes towards the nursing and midwifery professions".

The INO conference takes place in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, from May 3rd to 5th. Ms Harney has been invited to attend, but she has informed the INO she is unable to travel to the event due to another engagement.

Last year she got a cool reception at the union's annual conference in Killarney. She was met with a line of delegates holding placards proclaiming people wanted beds, not trolleys in A&E.

Meanwhile, a range of other motions are also down for debate at this year's INO conference, including one calling for the introduction of legislative staffing levels, another calling for guaranteed ring-fenced funding to provide more beds and one calling on the HSE not to obstruct, threaten or sanction an employee who speaks to the media about the state of their working environment.

Delegates will also be asked to approve motions calling for a six-month sabbatical to be made available for all nurses and midwives who have worked for 15 years and for a national uniform for all nurses which would be provided and laundered by their employer.