Up to 40 beds are to be closed at Limerick's second-biggest acute hospital in the latest round of health cutbacks, writes Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent, in Galway.
The move was disclosed at the annual conference of the Irish Nurses' Organisation in Galway yesterday and came as delegates unanimously agreed to mount a nationwide protest against health cuts.
They accused the Government of conning the public during the general election campaign into believing they would be provided with a world-class health service.
St John's Hospital in Limerick, which has just over 100 beds, will close an entire floor of 30 beds for the months of June, July and August. The hospital's day-care unit, with 10 beds, will also close for four weeks.
This latest round of bed closures comes on top of announcements earlier in the week that 250 beds will have to close at Dublin's five main teaching hospitals, as well as 25 bed closures at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin and 32 at James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown.
A number of beds are also to be closed at Tralee General Hospital this summer.
The INO, which has 28,000 members, is to seek the support of other unions and patient advocacy groups, such as the Irish Patients' Association.
That campaign may initially take the form of street demonstrations, but INO general secretary Mr Liam Doran said the prospect of industrial action could not be ruled out.
Anger was palpable among those attending the conference and speaker after speaker defied the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, to admit the health service was in crisis. He is likely to get a cool reception when he addresses the conference this morning.
Frustration was also directed at the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
Ms Theresa Hayes, clinical nurse manager at Tallaght Hospital, said: "In the 1980s Charlie Haughey closed beds and bought shirts. This is 2003. Bertie Ahern is closing beds and buying jets".
Highlighting intolerable conditions for patients, she said a 103-year-old woman had to spend four days on a trolley in the casualty department at Tallaght Hospital.
In other cases, she said a 74-year-old spent her entire 2½ weeks in the hospital on a trolley - four days on a trolley in A&E and 12 days on a trolley in a day ward.
A 62-year-old with progressive brain disease had been waiting since December 2000 for an extended care bed in the community.
Ms Madeline Spiers accused hospital consultants of "creaming the money out of the country" and Mr Martin of failing to take them on.
Ms Mary Callinan said there were too many managers managing managers.
Home-help services were being cut, but there was no word of cuts in management or administrative staff, she said.
Another nurse, Ms Marie Flannery from Galway, described how the health system failed her father when he was admitted to hospital last year.
By the time he got a bed, he had septicaemia and several other complications and only survived because there was a nurse in the family, she said.
In another example of appalling conditions, Ms Monica O'Brien, a nurse at St Joseph's care centre in Longford, which has 170 beds for the elderly, said there were just two baths and no showers for one 51-bed unit.