INMO nurses protesting outside St Vincent's Hospital earlier this week RollingNews.ie RollingNews.ie

Updated: 12.25 am

LATE NIGHT TALKS have managed to avert a series of coordinated strikes in emergency departments across the country on Tuesday.

INMO nurses had been planning staggered two-hour work stoppages throughout Ireland, in order to avoid patients in any one area of the country being left without emergency cover.

The decision to strike over the ongoing staffing crisis in Irish hospitals came last month, when INMO nurses voted 92% in favour of industrial action.

Last Wednesday night, further negotiations between the HSE and INMO broke down, but last-minute crisis talks tonight managed to avert the work stoppages temporarily.

The INMO said the strike had been deferred, and members would vote on a new set of proposals.

In a statement issued after midnight, INMO Secretary General Liam Doran said:

The INMO’s consistent objective, throughout this whole campaign, has been to ensure Emergency Departments are as safe as possible for patients and staff.

An INMO spokesperson stressed that Tuesday’s action had only been deferred, and that strikes planned for 12 and 26 January were still due to go ahead.

The new proposals, which will be put to a vote among INMO members, included minimising emergency department overcrowding and trolley waiting times, recruiting and keeping nursing staff, and increasing requirements and standards for reporting on health and safety conditions in emergency departments.

Originally published: 11.36 pm

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