Health managers are threatening to withhold pay increases due to nurses in response to their concerns about healthcare assistants, union leaders claimed today.
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) has raised questions about the role of the new tier of health workers and will be debating the issue at their annual conference in Killarney this week.
INO general secretary Liam Doran said they had been told last week that they might not get their next scheduled pay increase and a special meeting would be convened at the conference to discuss a response.
"We have been informed that the management said they are seeking the withholding of the next pay increase on the premise that we are not co-operating with the introduction of the healthcare assistants.
"We view it as being a retaliatory strike arising from the A&E protest," Mr Doran said.
The general secretary warned that if the pay increase was withheld, it would cause nationwide reverberations and possible industrial action.
The INO believes that the assistants, who are trained in areas such as hygiene and infection control, could be a valuable addition to the health service but has concerns over the effect their introduction may have on nurses.
"The INO's position is that provided the trained healthcare assistant is introduced in addition to and not instead of a registered nurse, and provided they're reporting to and doing tasks delegated from the nurse, their introduction will undoubtedly assist the quality of healthcare," Mr Doran said.
He said the area they were most concerned about was the involvement of assistants in the taking of vital signs, such as blood pressure and heart rate, and who would be responsible for any mistakes made.
"If you're going to change the role of nurses and allocate jobs to healthcare assistants, who is still ultimately responsible?
"Employers haven't answered that," Mr Doran said.
PA