Industrial action at Drogheda hospital over nursing shortages

Nurses are taking part in work-to-rule industrial action at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda over staff shortages on Tuesday.

Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) members have taken the action after negotiations at the Workplace Relations Commission broke down last week.

An INMO spokesman said the union remained available for further talks.

The spokesman said there were more than 100 vacant full-time equivalent posts that needed to be filled at the hospital.

INMO spokesman Tony Fitzpatrick said the Minister for Health Simon Harris, Health Service Executive (HSE) and Department for Health needed to immediately clarify that the HSE was not conducting a recruitment pause.

“It would give an indication to those working away within the system that help is on the way,” he said.

“They should be saying we will continue to recruit, instead we have the idiotic behaviour - completely wrong optics that we’re not recruiting, that’s there’s a recruitment pause which means nurses will look elsewhere.”

Mr Fitzpatrick told RTÉ Morning Ireland of the 104 posts vacant at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, 52 are permanent posts that are currently advertised but not filled.

“The remainder are temporary deficits - maternity leave etc. There are still gaps on the roster that have to be filled,” he said.

“You can’t operate a hospital and continue to operate at full capacity when you’ve that level of deficit. Drogheda is not unique. The Mater, St Vincent’s, or any major hospital in the country - they all have in excess of 100 vacancies too and that just indicates the crisis that exists within the health service where there is a severe shortage of nurses and midwives.”

Mr Fitzpatrick said that patient care will be enhanced in Drogheda on Wednesday.

“Patients will be better looked after because of the work to rule. Nurses won’t be attending non clinical meetings, they won’t be inputting computer data, they won’t be conducting audits, answering phones, instead they will dedicate all their time to patient care,” he said.

“The reality is every single day procedures are postponed and that’s unacceptable, don’t know why management took that decision because there will be more clinical nursing hours today that on another day. The reason why our members are doing this is to protect patients.”

The industrial action is set to continue indefinitely, however the emergency department would remain open, the union said.

A hospital spokesman also confirmed the emergency department would remain open through the industrial action.

“However, the contingency plan will include cancelling all planned, non-urgent (not including cancer-related) elective procedures on Tuesday,” he said.

He said the hospital encouraged patients in the first instance to attend their GP, their local urgent care centre, minor injuries unit or their out of hours GP service if appropriate.