THE Irish Nurses' Organisation is refusing to co operate with plans to transfer 800 nurses from the Meath, Adelaide and National Children's hospitals in Dublin to the new Tallaght complex.
The INO has written to tell the chief executive of the Tallaght hospital, Dr David McCutcheon that it is withdrawing all co operation until a draft document on the hospital's management structure is withdrawn "and the thinking behind it set aside".
The draft document makes no mention of the appointment of a director of nursing for Tallaght although all three hospitals due to merge in the Tallaght unit have them. The deputy general secretary of the INO, Mr Liam Doran said he had informed Dr McCutcheon that "we will not become involved in any preparatory work, such as discussions relating to the transfer of nursing staff, until this document is withdrawn."
The document is understood to contain proposals to appoint directors for areas such as human resources and patient care. A recent pattern has seen director of nursing posts remaining unfilled or being phased out.
This could have serious implications for any efforts to salvage the £50 million nurses' pay deal, which was rejected by the State's 26,000 nurses last week. One of the main premises was that besides substantial pay increases for some groups of nurses, it would also improve career structures. Traditionally nurses have regarded themselves as the Cinderellas of the health professions, particularly in the management area where pay rates have lagged significantly.
In the proposals rejected last week the most significant increases were for nurses in the director of nursing grades. Their salaries would rise at the top of the current scale from £27,000 a year to £37,500 (when performance related payments are included).
Nursing unions now fear that while the increase was highlighted by management as a major concession in the talks, there may be plans to quietly phase out the position and save money by transferring senior nurse management to medical or lay administrators. A similar trend has already emerged in Britain, but nurses have been compensated with better grading structures at junior level.
Mr Doran says that the INO has agreed in principle to the abolition of two out of three senior director of nursing posts in Limerick, with the amalgamation of three local hospitals there. But he adds that "there must be a director of nursing in the structure of the Tallaght hospital, with a direct reporting relationship to the chief executive and a complete nursing management structure. Nothing else will do.
"There has never been such a bold faced attempt before to eliminate a director of nursing position. This is a black and white, non negotiable issue as far as the union is concerned."
He said the INO would not be attending talks next Monday on transferring staff.