INMO opposes plan for more beds in Dingle Hospital
HSE proposals to provide more beds at the West Kerry Community Hospital in Dingle are bad for both staff and patients, according to the INMO which is resisting the move.
The hospital, which was built at a cost of €16.4 million, has never operated at full capacity since it opened in October 2010. The hospital has a capacity of 54 beds but just 46 beds are currently in use. However, the eight unused beds were commissioned and registered with HIQA last September and the HSE now plans to bring them into use in response to huge local demand for care facilities for the elderly.
This move is being resisted by the INMO, which represents nurses at the hospital. The INMO insists that increasing patient numbers, without a matching increase in the number of nurses, will put intolerable pressure on staff and will impact negatively on the quality of patient care.
A HSE spokesperson said this week that, “management is seeking to reach agreement with the INMO in relation to staffing and rosters and has sought the assistance of the WRC [ Workplace Relations Commission] in order to resolve this issue and increase the capacity from 46 to its full capacity of 54.”
The dispute will be discussed at a meeting of the WRC this Thursday and at that meeting the INMO is going to seek an independent evaluation of appropriate staffing levels at the hospital.
INMO Industrial Relations Officer Michael Dineen told The Kerryman that the INMO and the HSE had an agreement in 2010 for 46 beds and the equivalent of 18.5 nursing posts in the hospital. However, he said the HSE now plans to open eight more beds at the hospital while reducing staff numbers to 18.
He said this was a “purely economic response to the delivery of care”, which would put too much pressure on staff and would deny patients proper care.
Mr Dineen added that, last July, Dingle Hospital staff themselves devised a roster to give what they felt would be a better work – life balance. “They’re continuing that arrangement but we have huge concerns about HSE proposals to open additional beds with staffing levels that would be lower than those agreed in 2010,” he said.