A DISPUTE between some senior nursing staff and management at Portiuncula Hospital, Ballinasloe, Co Galway, could result in certain services at the hospital being curtailed, the Health Service Executive (HSE) has warned.
Five of the assistant directors of nursing at the 206-bed hospital have been on sick leave for a number of months and the HSE says if their union, the Irish Nurses’ Organisation (INO), refuses to allow other nurses to act up in their posts, normal services will not be able to continue. It said wards may have to close and temporary staff may be put on protective notice.
The INO, however, says its members are out of work on stress-related sick leave as a result of the way management dealt with them after they raised a number of complaints regarding the health and safety of staff and patients at the hospital as well as some of their conditions of employment.
“Management at the hospital, instead of addressing those concerns, arranged for an ‘assessment’ involving individual meetings with an outside consultant to be carried out, without any terms of reference or agreement from the five senior nurse managers.
“Each of the nurse managers sought written clarification on what was being assessed and terms of reference. None were forthcoming and, instead, they were instructed to attend.
“As a group they did attend an introductory meeting but were dissatisfied with the lack of clarity. They felt individual meetings with an outside party and without clear terms of reference were an attempt to penalise them for raising complaints,” the INO said.
It added that all efforts to find a solution that would enable the five to return to normal working conditions have been frustrated by an insistence by management that they will face disciplinary action as soon as they go back.
Today INO members will hold a lunchtime protest outside the hospital in support of their colleagues returning to work without pre-conditions. A HSE spokesman claimed nurses’ concerns about patient safety were only “thrown into the pot to confuse the situation”. He said efforts to resolve the dispute had been frustrated by the refusal of the nurses to engage with the outside consultant.
Local INO industrial relations officer Noreen Muldoon said there were no plans for industrial action.