MINISTER FOR Health James Reilly has said he wants to see the introduction of more flexible rosters for nurses.
It was “not realistic” for nurses to expect to work their full week over the course of three days of 12-hour shifts, he said.
Dr Reilly is not only seeking greater flexibility in the working arrangements for nurses but also for hospital consultants.
This would involve more ward rounds carried out on Saturdays and Sundays and diagnostic tests assessed over the weekend so as to facilitate the discharge of patients from hospitals at an earlier stage, the Minister said.
Asked whether he believed the requirement for reform of nursing rosters would present a test to the commitment of nurses to the Croke Park agreement, the Minister said that change was always difficult but that he was putting forward his proposals against a background of 450,000 people unemployed, of 100,000 people afraid they were going to lose their homes and tens of thousands of businesses with their backs to the wall.
“I think we all have to change the way we are doing things in order to get the result we want for our country.”
In response to the Minister’s comments, nursing unions said that they were not involved in any discussions about the plans for roster changes.
The secretary general of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation Liam Doran said he was mystified as to what was driving the move.
He claimed the proposals showed a lack of awareness of the ward cycle in hospitals, saying that there were no peaks and troughs and that occupancy rates were above 90 per cent.
Louise O’Reilly of Siptu said that if the Minister wanted to engage in a discussion on rosters with the trade unions there were ample mechanisms open to him to do so but that this had not happened so far.
She said that if Dr Reilly wanted to start an engagement on the issue he had gone about it the wrong way.
Mr Doran said nurses were already showing considerable flexibility. He said there were now 3,000 fewer nurses than there were three years ago, while there were 400 more hospital consultants.
Both nursing unions said the 12-hour day was the cheapest form of roster.
Meanwhile, student nurses and midwives are to hold a march and rally on November 9th in protest at plans to cut pay during their mandatory placement period in hospitals.
The move to cut and ultimately phase out such payments for student nurses and midwives was originally announced by the previous government last December.
