There was a sense of déjà vu among nurses on the picket line outside Beaumont Hospital in Dublin yesterday. It was almost seven years to the day since they had walked out of casualty to protest about conditions for staff and patients. Seven years later all were agreed nothing had changed. Some said things had got worse.
Ms Christine Brennan, a nurse in the hospital's A&E unit for 12 years, said "absolutely nothing" had changed. "Hopefully we will be listened to this time."
Ms Mary Tynan, the clinical nurse manager who was in charge of the unit before nurses walked out at noon, said staff were upset at being forced on to the picket line again. "It's awful because we did it seven years ago for the very same reasons and seven years on it's no different, it's worse if anything."
She was carrying a newspaper article covering the previous protest in 1995 when the Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, was minister for health. It quoted the then Fianna Fáil health spokeswoman, Ms Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, as saying a cohesive plan to deal with overcrowding in emergency departments in the major Dublin hospitals needed to be put in place.
Ms Tynan said this never happened. She stressed the nurses were not in dispute with hospital management, but with the Minister for Health. This was borne out by the delivery of coffee and biscuits to the troops on the picket line by a member of the management team.
Visitors to the hospital were handed leaflets outlining the reasons for the industrial action and motorists passing by honked their horns in support of the nurses. Few patients were presented at the A&E unit during the stoppage and most of those on trolleys were found beds, following the cancellation of elective admissions.
Unusually, among those holding a SIPTU placard at the gates was an A&E physician, Dr Aimen Ajena. He said he wanted to support the nurses because overcrowding meant it was becoming dangerous for both nurses and doctors working in A&E.
Ms Caitríona McHale, a clinical nurse manager, said her blood pressure went up every time she heard it said that patients would suffer as a result of the industrial action. "These patients suffer every day and this is what we are trying to get something done about."
Ms Tynan said the problem was a shortage of beds. At 8 a.m. yesterday when she started her shift there were 20 patients on trolleys. Some patients had to stay on trolleys for "days and days".
Mr Gerard White, another A&E nurse, said casualty units had become unsafe for patients and staff. Patients were tripping over trolleys and falling off trolleys and staff were being attacked while on duty. He added that staff were leaving the unit in droves and taking up jobs in the fire brigade and other services.