Staffing ratio issue is one front in move by unions to improve employment levels

The claims by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) that the ratio of births to midwives in Irish maternity centres are way out of line with international norms represents just one front in an overall campaign to force the Government to improve staffing levels across the health service.

The INMO, Siptu and the Psychiatric Nurses Association, will today, in a separate but linked development, raise their concerns about the impact of Government recruitment restrictions at the Labour Relations Commission.

State payroll
The unions will contend that with about 5,200 fewer nurses on the State payroll than before the economic crisis began five years ago, safety is now being compromised.

Nursing unions are particularly aggrieved at suggestions that the recruitment ban has been eased as well as by comments by Minister for Health James Reilly last week that several hundred additional staff had been appointed over the past year.

The unions argue the Government’s recruitment moratorium is very much still in place and that more than 800 nursing posts overall were lost last year.

Ultimately, the case being made by the unions about recruitment restrictions could go to the Labour Court.

The HSE did not specifically comment on the INMO assertions that no hospital or unit met internationally recognised birth-to-midwife ratios.

However, it said in a statement – and is likely to repeat in the Labour Relations Commission process – that it is to establish a midwifery workload and workforce review.

It said last night the review “will validate staffing levels for midwives and maternity care assistants in maternity units nationally and will recommend appropriate midwifery staffing and skill-mix levels and/or initiatives to meet emerging models of maternity care ensuring that standards of safety and quality care for women and their families are met”.

The HSE did not give details of what is meant by “emerging models of maternity care”.

However, the INMO yesterday hinted at the possible introduction of midwife units for low-risk pregnancies.

Staffing levels
Coming in the wake of the report of the investigation into the deaths of a number of infants at the maternity unit in the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise, the INMO figures regarding staffing levels nationwide are worrying.

The fact that the INMO contended the Coombe hospital – which the Government had said would provide support and oversight in future to the Portlaoise maternity service – is itself experiencing staffing difficulties also raises concerns.

While it is clear the INMO disagrees with the author of the report into the perinatal deaths at Portlaoise that staffing was not at the heart of the problems in the unit, it is also clear that the union wants the focus of midwifery employment levels to be on a more national level.