Nurses in Limerick vote for industrial action in February

Nurses in University Hospital Limerick and other Midwest region hospitals have voted in favour of industrial action in response to the issue of severe overcrowding.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) members balloted voted 93 per cent in favour of engaging in a work-to-rule on February 3rd- the same day as a similar protest is due to be held in Galway University Hospital.

During the action, nursing staff at hospitals in Limerick, Ennis, Nenagh and Croom will refuse to perform any administrative, clerical or non-clinical tasks.

The decision was taken as a result of the “unabated overcrowding” witnessed in University Hospital Limerick, the use of trolleys and beds on in-patient wards, a critical shortage of nurses in the area and a failure to recruit additional nurses, according to the INMO.

According to the latest Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation trolley and ward watch report, 433 people across the State are now waiting to be accommodated in hospital beds. It marks an increase of 70 on yesterday's figures, and is the first significant rise in waiting numbers since the crisis peaked last week.

"All of the above are issues of patient safety which the INMO has raised directly with the HSE, " said Mary Fogarty, an industrial relations officer with the union.

“We acknowledge that additional bed capacity is required in the region but equally this requires the recruitment of nurses, and other support staff, for all proposed new in-patient areas,” she added.

It is the latest in a string of industrial action announcements by hospital workers, after union members in Beaumont also opted to start a work-to-rule on January 27th.

According to latest figures, 27 patients in Limerick are still waiting on a bed, down from 45 at the height of the crisis last week. Currently, around 363 patients across the State remain without beds as hospitals struggle to accommodate new admissions.

It is the second overcrowding crisis that staff in Limerick have had to contend with over the space of the last four months, after 47 people faced an extended wait on trolleys at the end of September.

Members of nursing unions will also hold a demonstration outside Leinster House tomorrow when the Dáil resumes business following the Christmas break.

Speaking last week, INMO leaders warned that escalating industrial action, including strikes, may be warranted if the current overcrowding situation in emergency departments and wards isn’t resolved soon.