Pickets will be placed on all acute hospitals across the State this afternoon by accident and emergency nurses who are walking out in protest at overcrowding and difficult working conditions.
Their decision to go ahead with industrial action was taken last evening after representatives of the 800 nurses working in A&E departments rejected initiatives worth €107 million put forward by the Health Service Employers' Agency to solve the dispute.
The Irish Nurses' Organisation general secretary, Mr Liam Doran, said the HSEA proposals were not focused enough or immediate enough to convince nurses their work environment and the patient care environment would be sufficiently improved in the short term to allow them call off the action. He said some elements of the package had been announced numerous times before. Reviews were promised but "this thing has been reviewed to death". He said nurses did not trust management to deal with their problems in the short term. They were "worn out, battle weary and bruised".
"We need more resources now both in terms of better management structures, a better empowered bed manager, better staffing structures, improved security." He accepted the action would cause some hardship for patients but he stressed they were already suffering hardship waiting on trolleys. "It may mean going one half a step back to go three steps forward."
He confirmed the two-hour stoppage from noon to 2 p.m. today will be followed by a continuous work-to-rule for eight days. During this time nurses will refuse to do clerical work with the exception of filling out essential nursing records. They will also refuse to do portering duties or IV infusions or take bloods or do ECGs. They will continue, however, to provide basic nursing care.
The nursing unions will meet again tomorrow week, Thursday March 21st, to review the situation.During today's two-hour stoppage, a number of A&E nurses will be on hand for emergencies such as assisting with resuscitation. "All life-threatening situations will be dealt with," Mr Doran stressed.
A second planned withdrawal of service by the nurses for three hours on Wednesday, March 20th, has been postponed, however, "in deference" to the convening of an A&E forum that day by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin.
SIPTU national nursing official Mr Oliver McDonagh said nurses wanted something tangible to improve their lot and the lot of patients immediately.
After intense scrutiny of the HSEA document, nurses felt there was nothing tangible in it for them. The unions had put forward proposals which they believed would solve the problem, he said.
Last night the HSEA's chief executive Mr Gerard Barry was extremely disappointed the strike was going ahead. "We genuinely felt the proposals we made to the unions, both in terms of improved infrastructure and on staffing, represented a way forward in terms of improving the working conditions of nurses in A&E departments and we also felt at the very least they should have given the process an opportunity to develop," he said.