Nurses in Kerry General Hospital are balloting on industrial action amid higher-than-normal levels of sick leave among the staff. The results of the ballot on a work to rule will be known tomorrow night.
Up to 32 days each month are lost due to illness among the 450 or so nursing staff at the hospital, the southern area Health Service Executive (HSE) has confirmed.
However, in recent days there has been a higher-than-normal level of illness among nursing staff, a spokeswoman said. Management has put in place a number of measures including deferment of career breaks and the provision of flexible working time.
Michael Dineen, industrial relations officer with the Irish Nurses' Organisation, said nurses were "absolutely exhausted" and that illness levels reflected the inappropriate working environment in the hospital.
Some 15 nurses were out due to illness last Friday week. Mr Dineen said the INO estimated the hospital was short 80 nurses.
Services had increased at the hospital but nursing staff levels had remained unchanged.
The INO said that nurses were having to break holidays and days off to provide cover in departments because there was no back-up.
"They are absolutely exhausted. That's the reality of it. They are annoyed and frustrated," Mr Dineen said.
The HSE said every effort had been made by the management to have a full complement of nursing staff available and it had undertaken a number of actions including advertising for temporary staff, deferring career breaks and granting flexible working time.
It said a full review of staffing at the hospital was due to start in early February
Meanwhile, in University College Hospital Galway elective admissions were cancelled yesterday because of heavy pressure placed on the A&E department.
Seventeen patients were waiting for admission at the A&E department yesterday after lunch, and staff were expecting a very busy night.
A spokesman for the western area HSE said every effort was being made to find beds for patients who required admission. Emergency cases continued to be treated at UCHG.
In a separate development in Co Clare, health service campaigners nailed a series of questions about the future of Ennis General Hospital to the door of the regional HSE headquarters in Limerick.
Cllr Brian Meaney (Green Party) of the Ennis General Hospital development committee said: "We have nailed these questions to the door of the HSE here today because [ HSE chief executive] Prof Drumm has refused to answer these questions in a letter we sent him a number of weeks ago."
Cllr Meaney said Prof Drumm's silence had generated great cause for concern that the political commitments made to the hospital would not be followed through by the HSE.