Talks aimed at averting next week’s planned strike by emergency department nurses in seven hospitals are expected to get under way immediately.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), while reaffirming its intention to go ahead with rolling two-hour stoppages next Thursday, said it would be contacting the Health Service Executive with a view to having further discussions as soon as possible.
Hospitals have begun making contingency arrangements that will see hundreds of non-urgent appointments and procedures cancelled.
Minister for Health Leo Varadkar said he hoped the work stoppage would not go ahead. Everything that could reasonably be done would be done to convince nurses that management, the HSE and Government are committed to the agreement negotiated before Christmas, he promised.
The hospitals where nurses will strike next week include Beaumont and Tallaght in Dublin; University College Hospital Galway; Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore; Cork’s Mercy University Hospital; Cavan General Hospital; and University Hospital Waterford.
Mr Varadkar remains under intense political pressure despite a slight easing of the hospital overcrowding crisis. On Thursday, 427 patients were waiting for admission to hospital compared to 473 the day before. Trolley numbers at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, where overcrowding is worst, dropped from 54 to 39.
‘National scandal’
Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty described the trolley crisis as a national scandal, adding: “If Leo Varadkar is not up for the job, then he should just go.”
Mr Varadkar brushed off the call for his resignation but admitted “we are certainly nowhere where we should be” given the “enormous efforts” made to ease overcrowding in the last year.
The Minister said what was needed was a five-year programme of sustained investment in hospitals, primary care and social care.
Meanwhile, a fear of being struck off has emerged as a main reason why emergency department (ED) nurses rejected the deal between the INMO and the HSE before Christmas.
The union said one of the main concerns raised at a meeting of ED nurse representatives on Thursday was of maintaining registration when they are unable to deliver appropriate levels of care due to overcrowding.
INMO general secretary Liam Doran said hospitals in Cork and Mullingar had placed patients on extra beds in wards without the notification required. The union is opposed to this policy of full capacity protocol but it is permitted as a "last resort" provided the INMO and the HSE are informed.
