Cavan General nurses poised to strike next week as talks breakdown

Talks between INMO and Health Service management aimed at averting the strikes in Emergency Departments, commencing next Tuesday have broken down without agreement.

The INMO will now go ahead with a series of coordinated two hour strikes at seven hospitals nationwide. In Cavan General Hospital, union members will mount their strike on Tuesday, December 15, 10am-noon.

The talks,chaired by the Workplace Relations Commission, happened against the backdrop of severe shortages of nursing staff and threatened strike action in the country’s Emergency Departments. An INMO spokesperson said: “In spite of agreements providing for the immediate recruitment of 144 nurses across 12 of the 26 ED Departments, which cannot be filled on current terms, Health Employers failed to produce an incentivised recruitment package. UK and Irish private hospitals are actively recruiting Irish nurses with attractive incentive packages while the Irish health service is haemorrhaging nurses.” 

Dave Hughes, INMO Deputy General Secretary said: “While management accepted that a state of bedlam existed in our EDs, and made statements on the need for greater security, cleaning and management support, their whole approach lacked credibility, and urgency, by their failure to commit to a realistic recruitment and retention plan.”

There were 2,449 admitted patients waiting on trolleys in the first 7 days of December according to the INMO’s trolley/ward watch. Mr Hughes said: “There is a tolerance of ED overcrowding and the complete failure to manage and control admissions and discharges.”

ED nurses voted to take strike action by a margin of 92%. Seven hospitals will next Tuesday will have two hour rolling strikes with pickets as follows:

Beaumont Hospital, Dublin (8-10am); Mercy University Hospital, Cork (8-10am); Tallaght Hospital, Dublin (10am-noon); Cavan General Hospital (10am-noon); University Hospital Waterford (noon-2pm); MRH, Tullamore (noon-2pm); University Hospital, Galway (2-4pm).

The INMO will hold a press conference, at 11.30am, on this Friday, December 11, in INMO HQ. This will be attended by local representatives, from some of the hospitals that will be on strike on Tuesday. They will explain the current working environment and the negative impact upon patient care, and their own health and wellbeing, due to this severe ongoing overcrowding.

The INMO say they remain available for meetings to discuss contingency measures and the substantive issues in dispute.