HEALTH boards are experiencing increasing problems in providing night cover for children in residential care during the current strike by paramedics. One residential unit in Limerick has closed already and the children transferred to other units. However, it is likely that more children will have to be sent home if the dispute is protracted.
Today, the executive of IMPACT is to consider a formal request from the employers to exclude residential homes for children at risk, and the mentally handicapped, from the dispute. It is thought unlikely the union will agree to this as childcare workers are already providing daytime cover without pay and night cover is not part of their normal duties.
In contrast to the childcare service industrial action by much higher profile paramedic professions, such as physiotherapists and speech and language therapists is still having little effect on the major acute hospitals. About 70 per cent of cases are emergencies and elective admissions are being screened in advance to see if they require physiotherapy. With large backlogs of patients it seems unlikely that elective admissions in most hospitals will be seriously disrupted for some days yet.
House parents, who look after residential homes for children in care are among the lowest paid paramedics. The rate for trainees starts at £10,865 and the scale for full house parents runs from £14,935 to £18,724 over nine years.
Another area of concern is that sex abuse cases are not covered by the emergency guidelines operating during the strike. The editor of the Irish Social Worker, Mr Kieran McGrath, said yesterday that these cases were emergencies as far as the victims and their families were concerned.
Fifty patients have been sent home from the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire because of the strike. The chief executive, Mr Liam O'Byrne, said yesterday that patients were only being discharged after they had received medical clearance from doctors. A further 76 are still being cared for at the hospital.
Meanwhile, soundings continue to see if a basis can be found for renewed talks to resolve the dispute. But the general secretary of IMPACT, Mr Peter McLoone, has rejected claims made by the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Mr Brian O'Shea, in the Dail that informal contacts were being maintained with the union.
In Dublin, the local health vocational group of IMPACT has written to the American Ambassador, Ms Jean Kennedy Smith, asking her to cancel a proposed visit to Peamount Hospital on Monday.