About 1,000 nurses took part in work stoppages in Dublin, Naas and Sligo yesterday as the Irish Nurses' Organisation and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association stepped up their campaign for improved pay and conditions.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) said that the protests, which each lasted for three hours, resulted in the cancellation of 317 procedures at Dublin's Beaumont Hospital, Naas General Hospital and Sligo General Hospital. The protests were supported by nurses in mental health services in Portrane, Kildare and Sligo.
Louise McMahon, HSE hospital network manager, said that the cancellations were in addition to a "general slowdown" because of the work-to-rule.
She said there was a "hidden disruption" that was difficult to quantify because hospitals were scheduling fewer appointments in anticipation of work stoppages.
The biggest protest was at Beaumont Hospital, where 450 nurses attended a rally at the hospital gates. Addressing the rally, INO president Madeleine Spiers urged Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to act urgently to resolve the dispute. "Bertie, you've sorted out Northern Ireland. You are a great politician. Don't tell me you haven't the moral fibre to look after the people who put you in there or else we'll take you out of there," she said.
Ms Spiers said that an agreement with nurses would not break the public service pay deal because nurses were only seeking equality with their colleagues. "Do you tell me that a neo-natal nurse who stands for 12 hours saving the life of a child is worth less than a chiropodist who will look after your feet?" she said.
Clinical nurse manager Karen Coyne said that the protest was about much more than pay. It was about the survival of the nursing profession. She said that three years after qualifying 70 per cent of nurses were no longer working in Ireland. "It costs €80,000 to train one nurse. But other countries are getting the benefit from our skills," she said. " It costs €30,000 to bring in a nurse from abroad."
The HSE's plans to cut wages had incensed nurses, said Eddie Mathews, INO industrial relations officer. "It's unprecedented and it smacks of hypocrisy considering its own [HSE] managers were on a work-to-rule and no money was taken from them for a considerable period," he added.
