INMO chief calls for greater safety focus in health service amid ‘career-ending assaults’ on staff

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) needs to put the same focus on safety for workers in the health service as it does for those in the construction sector, the head of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) urged on Wednesday, amid a warning about “career-ending assaults” on some INMO members.

Speaking at the commencement of the INMO’s three-day annual delegate conference in Sligo, the union’s general secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, said delegates would be hearing testimony from colleagues about their experiences. “This is not something we relish when we hear our members telling us about absolutely appalling assaults, career-ending assaults in some instances,” said the union leader .

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said that, as well as acting as care environments, hospitals were workplaces and the HSE was “a very large employer”, with INMO members making up one-third of its workforce.

Welcoming the fines imposed on the HSE last month at Trim Circuit Court following a HSA investigation into assaults on a number of nurses, she said that “more of this has to happen”.

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“We should not have to publicly call on the HSA, the Minister for Health and the HSE to uphold the safety of workers ,” said the INMO general secretary.

“What we want is exactly the same focus on the health service as there is on construction. There is a safety focus on construction which does not exist where our members work, unfortunately.”

Overcrowding

Cost-of-living increases, overcrowding and an initiative to help qualified nurses from Ukraine to work in the Irish system are among the issues to be highlighted at the conference, which will be addressed by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly on Friday.

Ms Ní Sheaghdha said overcrowding in Irish hospitals was probably worse now than when it was declared "a national emergency" by the then minister for health Mary Harney in 2006.

She said union members had witnessed elderly patients being cared for “for prolonged periods” while they sat in hard plastic chairs, while patients on trolleys were being stripped of all dignity and privacy with their intimate details discussed within earshot of those lying on other trolleys.

Karen McGowan, INMO president, said members had worked tirelessly since the last in-person conference in 2019 “and as we meet they are working under severe pressure in an overcrowded health service, as well as continuing to deal with Covid-19”.

She said members were suffering the effects of inflation and facing real economic difficulties in providing for themselves and their families in the current economic climate.

As frontline workers, nurses and midwives who spend most of their income on providing day-to-day essentials for themselves and their families “must not be left to the ravages of inflation”, Ms McGowan added.

Recruitment

With recruitment and retention of staff likely to be another key issue over the conference, Ms Ní Sheaghdha said 500 nurses would be needed to staff the new children’s hospital in the St James’s campus. This would be a challenge given that graduates are being enticed abroad by more attractive packages, she added. “And there are only two years left [until the hospital is expected to open],” said the INMO general secretary, who said that it took 4½ years to train a paediatric nurse.

The union has warned that it expects the Government to adhere to a commitment that working hours of nurses and midwives will be reduced from July 1st, given that staff worked free extra hours as part of the Haddington Road Agreement to reduce the public pay bill. “We have made it very clear to the HSE that if there is any messing on this that nurses will react,” said Ms Ní Sheaghdha. “We have worked additional hours for free during possibly the worst time in the health service. And July 1st is the date on which that ends.”

The INMO is launching a bespoke training course for Ukrainian nurses who came to Ireland as refugees. The union said it intended to provide the course free of charge to nurses "who seek refuge in Ireland from Ukraine but who wish to continue working in their profession".

The programme covers subjects such as tools for safe practice, care planning, medication management, nursing documentation, and knowledge of the Irish health service, with the costs to be fully borne by the INMO.