Updated 14.11

NURSES AT THE Emergency Department of Limerick’s Mid Western Regional Hospital are to hold another four-hour work stoppage next Tuesday.

The strike will be the third held by the nurses, who are mostly members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and Siptu, since September 21.

Nursing staff say they are protesting over concerns about serious overcrowding at the Emergency Department because of the closure of acute beds in the area and the moratorium on recruitment.

Yesterday, Minister for Health Dr. James Reilly said the nurses’ strikes were “unsafe, unsound and unwarranted”. He also said that nurses should remember that they work in the public service.

Answering questions in the Dáil, Minister Reilly added that the strike would have no benefit but may put patients at additional risk.

His comments were criticised by the Opposition with Fianna Fáil’s Limerick TD Niall Collins calling for him to withdraw his “offensive” comments.

“The Minister’s response was nothing short of stunning,” he said.

The work stoppage yesterday went ahead as no agreement was reached with hospital management after a five-hour meeting at the Labour Relations Commission.

Defending the nurses’ action this morning, General Secretary of the INMO Liam Doran told Newstalk Radio that nurses need to speak out and speak up for their patients.

According to the latest Trolley Watch figures, there were 371 people waiting on hospital beds yesterday. Six of these patients were in Limerick, compared with 18 the night before.

Doran said these numbers had lessened over the past few days because of the action taken by nurses.

Not pay-related

The INMO confirmed that Tuesday’s work stoppage will be held between 8.30am and 12.30pm.

In a statement released this afternoon, the organisation re-iterated that the action is nothing to do with their members pay or terms and conditions of employment.

Nurses are not being paid while they are on the picket line.

“They are protesting so that ill and vulnerable people who attend this hospital receive appropriate care,” said it INMO.

Nurses at the Emergency Department say that patient safety measures have been compromised by increased demands because of the reconfiguration process which saw services in Nenagh and Ennis being transferred to Limerick; reduced bed numbers in the region; 70 vacant nursing posts at the hospital and the failure to directly fund 13 additional consultant posts.

Yesterday: Nurses set for work stoppage at Limerick’s Mid-Western hospital>