AN ALL-OUT strike by 700 nurses at Sligo General Hospital next Thursday will result in 318 acutely-ill patients and 22 who required daily dialysis being left without nursing care, the HSE warned last night.
The warning came after members of Siptu indicated they would join their Irish Nurses Organisation colleagues on the one-day work stoppage.
Management has described the unions’ refusal to staff emergency and critical care areas during the strike as “unprecedented”, and last night INO official Noel Treanor agreed this was the case. He said management had been given three weeks’ notice of the action and indicated some patients may be moved to other locations.
The HSE said at a meeting this week it asked the INO to confirm that nurses would staff emergency areas such as intensive care and the renal dialysis unit during the strike and to maintain minimum staff levels in other areas “as usual during strike situations”.
“However, the INO stated that it will be providing no nursing cover throughout the hospital on May 21st with the exception of five nurses on call to the emergency department,” it said.
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