Nurse strike looms in run-up to Christmas
Union blames ‘chronic under-staffing’ for ballot
NURSES are to ballot for strike action in the coming weeks which would include rolling 24-hour stoppage in all hospitals in the run-up to Christmas.
The warning was issued yesterday by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) who said an acrossthe-board pay rise is needed to deal with the staffing crisis that has seen 2,600 fewer nurses working in the health service than in 2007.
If the vote passes, it would stop work for 24 hours, providing only essential, life-preserving care and emergency response teams for theatres and emergency departments.
The union said if the dispute remained unresolved the strike could escalate to two 24-hour stoppages in the week after the first day of industrial action.
The INMO has already warned that 2018 is forecast to be the worst year ever for overcrowding, with 100,000 patients expected to have been on trolleys by the end of December.
President of the INMO Martina Harkin-Kelly said the Government had left them with no option. She said: ‘We have been forced down this path, because the Government has failed to deal with chronic under-staffing.
‘Nurses and midwives are the lowest paid professionals in the health service, which is why the HSE is finding it impossible to recruit or retain.’
The INMO says the Government had ‘ample opportunity’ to make contact and engage with them regarding their concerns.
Ms Harkin-Kelly said: ‘Unfor- tunately that did not happen. We always, as nurses and midwives, always consider our patients’ safety and the current risk that our patients are currently at.’
On Friday, the HSE offered to engage in new talks with the nursing union, in an effort to avert possible strike action.
Talks are expected to continue this week.
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach has appealed to consultants and nurses not to take leave over busy Christmas and the New Year period in a bid to ease overcrowding in our hospitals.
Speaking in the Dáil, the Taoiseach said for any winter initiative to work, it needs consultants in emergency departments and nurses to not take holidays during the busy Christmas period.
Mr Varadkar said that of the 12 days between December 22 and January 3 – which encompasses the Christmas period – ‘seven will be Sundays, Saturdays or bank holidays’.
He explained: ‘We need to make sure, for the first time ever, that during that period radiology departments and laboratories will be open and working at full whack, that consultants will not be on holidays in the first week of the year, particularly those who work in emergency departments, and that nurses will not be on leave in the first two weeks of January.
‘We need to make sure that every bed will be open.’
‘We have no other choice’