Harsh choices facing hospitals, INO leader warns

Harsh choices about admitting and discharging patients will have to be made by hospitals, the head of the Irish Nurses Organisation, Mr Liam Doran warned tonight.

Mr Doran said planned admissions to hospitals would have to be deferred on a regular basis if the crisis in accident and emergency departments was to ease.

The second day of the A&E nurses work-to-rule was reported to be causing sporadic disruption at hospitals.

The Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) said the public was co-operating by attending their GPs for minor injuries. This afternoon it said attendance at Dublin hospitals’ A&E wards was below normal.

Many non-emergency admissions have been deferred as a result of the work-to-rule. There are concerns that problems will arise over the Bank Holiday weekend when fewer GP surgeries are open and hospitals operate with a reduced staff.

Patients have been advised to keep their scheduled appointments for day clinics and elective admissions today and tomorrow.

A spokeswoman for the ERHA emphasised that seriously ill patients are coming into A&E and on-going difficulties can be anticipated during the duration of the work-to-rule.

Ahead of tomorrow’s meeting by unions, employers and the Department of Health at the Labour Relations Commission there was a renewed call by the Health Service Employers Agency for the industrial action to be called off.

The agency’s chief executive, Mr Gerard Barry urged nurses to suspend their industrial action pending the LRC talks.

This was ruled out by the Irish Nurses Organisation general secretary, Mr Liam Doran, who said the industrial action would continue during the talks.

The work-to-rule began yesterday afternoon following a two-hour strike by nurses protesting at overcrowding and an unsafe working environment for staff and patients in A&E units.

A spokesman for the Western Health Board confirmed that all non-emergency admissions to University Hospital Galway were cancelled for today and tomorrow. Castlebar General, Roscommon General and Portiuncula in Ballinasloe are experiencing long delays at A&E departments, he said.

In the South West, Waterford Regional Hospital and Wexford General Hospital have been forced to cancel non-emergency admissions due to the winter vomiting bug.

Waterford has reported 114 cases among patients and 105 members of staff. A health board spokesperson said elective admissions were cancelled until next Wednesday - when the situation will be reviewed.

The hospitals said the work-to-rule is exacerbating the difficulties in their emergency departments.

Fourteen non-emergency operations have been cancelled in Limerick’s Regional Hospital since yesterday and a spokeswoman said the situation would be reviewed this evening.