Sir, As 24,000 nurses prepare to vote on strike action, we would ask them on behalf of their patients to draw back from unhelpful brinkmanship. We base this request on the following points:
Firstly, the current offer is far superior to that which initially led to preparations for more localised and less aggressive industrial action. The employer has followed the path of negotiation willingly, so there is little justification for national action now. Why should the nursing unions take out their frustration at their own failures to obtain a satisfactory settlement, and to guess the mood of their own members on two occasions, on an innocent Irish public?
Secondly, we remind nurses that if they believe, as we do, that their role in healthcare is of fundamental importance, they cannot in the same breath suggests that a national strike will not adversely influence the health of those under their care. When we met the INO in February of this year, we highlighted several areas in which patients will be particularly vulnerable during strike action.
These include the lack of early recognition of adverse effects or complications of surgery, as well as the continued suffering and possible death of patients whose waiting is further prolonged by this action. These concerns were also expressed by the Labour Court in its guidelines for the management of disputes in essential services, which proposed freedom from strikes in services such as nursing, with adequate safeguards from unfairness.
Unfortunately, nurses have been treated less than fairly over the years, but the responsibility for this must be shared between employers and unions, for instance in their complete failure to develop a continuing relationship. We believe that escalation at this stage would be a further miscalculation by the unions, in that it will dissolve much of the public sympathy and support enjoyed by nursing at present. We ask nurses instead to make their unions do their job and mediate a more acceptable package. We, the patients, will not do this for you. Yours, etc.,
(president),
(secretary),
The Irish Patients' Association,
78 Seafield Court,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.