THE IRISH Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) may refer the manner in which the Health Service Executive (HSE) last week decided to “immediately cease” all acute and emergency surgery at Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan, Co Meath, to the Labour Relations Commission.
Its industrial relations officer in the region, Tony Fitzpatrick, confirmed the union is meeting the HSE this morning along with members of the Irish Medical Organisation, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association, Siptu and Impact to discuss the situation.
The acute and emergency work is instead to be done by either two Dublin hospitals or Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
However, Mr Fitzpatrick said Cavan General Hospital was on call in the Navan region on Friday night last but, “Cavan knew nothing about it. There was no consultation with our members in Cavan or Drogheda on taking on an additional workload; the emergency departments there are overworked as it is.”
The possibility of the matter being referred to the Labour Relations Commission because of an alleged breach of the Information and Consultation Act over how the changes were introduced is understood to be under consideration by the INMO.
In a statement, the HSE said the decision was “in the interest of providing the highest quality of service to patients and following expert clinical advice”. The INMO said it had not seen the “expert clinical advice,” and the only documentation it saw was the HSE press release.
Mr Fitzpatrick also warned “the way in which the HSE has behaved will put in jeopardy any future engagement with it on any issue”.
Meanwhile, several hundred people turned up in Navan on Saturday, despite the rain, to support a rally against the removal of the services. It was told the campaign to retain the services at the hospital will be broadened.
Navan councillor Joe Reilly (Sinn Féin) said: “It is our intention to widen out this campaign to community groups, trade unions, medical professionals and the people of Meath. Minister Noel Dempsey will not be allowed to hide on this issue – we will be taking the protest to his constituency office in Trim.”