The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) will debate providing safe care to patients amid frontline cuts when it begins its annual delegate conference tomorrow.
More than 350 nurses and midwives will gather in Kilkenny for the three-day event, at which there will also be debates on a graduate placement programme, the impact of Hiqa reports on public services, payment arrangements for undergraduate nurses/midwives, and A&E overcrowding.
Delegates will also debate a motion on the "failure" of An Bord Altranais to provide support and guidance to nurses and midwives, so as to provide safe practice and care.
In a statement, the INMO said the ongoing loss of frontline posts "due to the recruitment embargo, the unwillingness of general management to accept decisions of nurse/midwife managers in relation to safe care and the increasing levels of dependency of all in-patient populations" has prompted it to seek agreed nurse/midwife patient ratios, underpinned by legislation.
Speaking on the eve of the 92nd conference, INMO president Sheila Dickson said she wanted to see a situation where every area of the health service has a minimum staffing level. "The staffing level required must also be determined by the nurse/midwife in charge of the unit. This will lead to safe care. This is real reform.”
General secretary Liam Doran added: "The take home pay for the average nurse/midwife is now 25 per cent less that it was two years ago; however, members continue to deliver change every day in all areas of the health service."
The conference will be addressed on Thursday by Health Service Executive chief executive Cathal Magee and the following day by Minister for Health James Reilly.
