Several hundred staff at University College Hospital, Galway, staged a lunchtime demonstration yesterday in opposition to the closure of 60 hospital beds and the lay-off of nursing staff.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation has warned that it may escalate industrial action following a ballot of members early next week.
The protest was supported by members of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA), the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and SIPTU. Mr Michael Kilcoyne, a SIPTU branch secretary, said neither nursing nor non-nursing staff would assist in moving furniture to facilitate closure of two wards and a theatre.
Mr Kilcoyne also challenged the Minister of State for Health, Mr Frank Fahey, to a debate on the state of UCHG. The Minister told RTE yesterday that he was seeking a full investigation into the management of UCHG, given that it was receiving £45 million a year and yet in-patient beds were down by 7 per cent. The decision to close two wards and a theatre has aroused a storm of protest since it was announced by the Western Health Board on Thursday.
The president of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association (IHCA), Dr David Lillis, who took part in yesterday's demonstration, reiterated that patients' lives would be put at risk by closure of beds on budgetary grounds.
"This is accountancy, not a health service," Dr Lillis said. Waiting lists would be further strained, and casualty would become impossible because of the measure, he said.
The IHCA is concerned that other health boards may be forced to take similar action as the budgetary strictures of the Health Amendment (No 3) Act, 1996, begin to take effect. This is the first year in which the boards have been required to produce service plans, and to work within a fixed budgetary allocation.
The Democratic Left spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus TD, has called for an urgent review of the legislation which, she said, was placing inoperable budgetary restrictions on health boards. The system was particularly illogical, she said, because withdrawing hospital beds to save on current expenditure meant the taxpayer was not getting a full return on capital investment.
The IMPACT trade union said a developing partnership between management and unions in the Western Health Board was threatened by the decision to close the beds and lay off nursing staff.
Ms Clare Treacy, industrial relations officer in the western region for the Irish Nurses' Organisation, said the decision would extend waiting lists further and result in 45 nurses losing jobs. Nurses were shocked at the treatment of colleagues who had been given less than 24 hours' notice that their contracts were being terminated.
Ms Helen Murphy, representing SIPTU nursing staff, said yesterday that elderly patients, and people requiring essential treatment for cancer, would be affected by the closure.
The unions intend to continue the protest on Monday, when the Western Health Board is due to meet.
