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Naas General Hospital Photocall Ireland
Health
Staff and management meet at Naas General Hospital
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Association has said it will begin industrial action at the hospital if action is not undertaken to reduce overcrowding.
MEMBERS OF THE Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) have met with management at Naas General Hospital.
Derek Reilly, industrial relations officer with the INMO, told local paper the Kildare Nationalist that the management agreed to take 10 patients out of the Emergency Department every morning and place them in wards.
This is to help alleviate overcrowding in the department.
Nurses at the hospital voted for industrial action in July.
They said they were exasperated at the situation and were concerned about patient safety and working conditions.
The INMO said it wanted the HSE to open up 24 beds that had been closed for financial reasons. To date, these have not been opened.
Reilly said that he was hopeful that if the position of nurse manager in the ED was filled then strike action would not go ahead.
Filling this position is currently blocked by the HSE under recruitment guidelines.
The INMO has said it will undertake industrial action beginning on 14 September if overcrowding at the hospital is not addressed.
The action would begin with a work-to-rule and the INMO said that patients would not be compromised by this.
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