PATIENTS AT Sligo General Hospital are facing major disruption next week following a decision by nurses to stage a one-day strike on May 21st.
Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) leaders yesterday warned there will be a “total” withdrawal of labour from 8am to 5pm that day and members will not provide cover.
Last week, following an almost unanimous vote by INO members in favour of industrial action, the union’s local industrial relations officer, Noel Treanor, warned that patients might have to be transferred if labour is withdrawn.
Nurses’ organisation representatives are due to meet with management today in an effort to avert strike action and to discuss the impact of a stoppage on patient care.
Yesterday Mr Treanor said the union would be listening to management’s proposals “but I cannot see how they will maintain services”. He said that he did not wish to pre-empt whatever contingency plans management plan to put in place.
More than 96 per cent of the 550 INO members at Sligo General voted in favour of industrial action in a row over the non-renewal of temporary contracts and bed closures.
Mr Treanor said management’s decision not to renew the contracts of 19 temporary nursing staff and the proposed closure of the stroke unit would have a major impact on patient care.
The union would be seeking the re-engagement of staff who had already been let go.
While the HSE has maintained the stroke unit is being relocated rather than closed, it has confirmed that a 16-bed medical unit is set to go.
Susan O’Keeffe, Labour’s candidate for the European election in the northwest, yesterday called for urgent talks.
Referring to speculation that patients may have to be moved out of the hospital, she said: “Nurses care about patient care and they do not want to put patients out. Neither I am sure does management.”
If necessary a mediator should be involved to help the two sides resolve “a very anxious situation”, she said.
Union members are due to meet tomorrow for a report from officials on their talks with management.
INO official Ann McGowan said that even if no resolution is found today she hoped management would listen to their concerns.
“I am not sure if they have grasped that nurses at Sligo General Hospital will not be available for work from 8am to 5pm on Thursday week.”
The HSE confirmed contingency plans in respect of next week’s action would be discussed at today’s meeting with the union. The Framework for Dispute Resolution, which was agreed nationally by the H SE and unions, provides for emergency levels of care in the event of industrial action “to ensure safe delivery of care”, it added.
The HSE said that under a national agreement reached between it and the nursing unions, student nurses were recruited on the basis of a reduction in temporary staff on a 2:1 ratio.
The recruitment of 38 new student nurses at Sligo General in 2009 therefore meant that 19 temporary contracts could not be renewed.
