Nurses dispute could 'deepen' as second strike day looms

Nurses from Our Lady's Hospital in Navan will take to the picket lines again this Tuesday as they continue their industrial action over pay and staff shortages. Tuesday will be the secondt of six planned 24-hour strikes by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s (INMO) 37,000 members. And the dispute could escalate, the INMO has warned, as it prepares to meet today to evaluate their strategy and consider fixing further strike dates over and above the six dates already scheduled.

According to RTE's Industrial Correspondent, Ingrid Miley, the INMO may also "deepen" their industrial action by exempting fewer areas, which could result in more services being closed.

The Health Service Executive has warned that it expects all out-patient, in-patient and day surgery to be cancelled ahead of Tuesday's strike.

It said it also expects Injury Units to be closed, and that routine community services and health centre nurse clinics to be cancelled.

Public day centres and day hospitals for older people or people with disabilities, will also close.

In addition, all planned admissions, including respite and rehabilitation, to public community nursing units and specified centres for people with intellectual disability, will be cancelled.

Assistant director of nursing, Caroline Carpenter was amongst the dozens of nurses that began marching outside Our Lady’s Hospital last Tuesday. She says nurses have been left with no other option. 

"We want pay parity with other healthcare workers who have the same qualification grade but are on completely different pay scales and work different hours that we work. We work side by side with them in the multidisciplinary team on a daily basis but yet nurses are treated completely differently.

Caroline Carpenter and Orlagh McDonnell

She added: "I'm responsible for patient flow from the emergency department and throughout the hospital and I see the impact of current conditions every day. None of us wants to be here today, we all want to be inside looking after our patients and delivering the service that we are qualified and trained to do. This has been the last resort for nurses and it's taken a long time to get to this point but unfortunately, this is where we are." 

Appointments are not just cancelled today but every day as a result of a flawed system, according to Caroline. 

"It happens every day, we are working under-resourced and depending on agencies to bridge the gap. There are cancellations every single day in the health service. If we want to provide a first world health service in the future we have to resource it correctly. Understaffed hospitals are not a good place for patients or nurses."

 

Industrial action

Orlagh McDonnell, senior staff nurse in the general theatre in Navan hospital also commented on the crisis.

"Lists are cancelled on a daily basis. We come into work and find out that the day surgery ward has been filled with patients from casualty overnight. Patients are suffering, day in, day out, not just today. The morale is low and the days are hard. We've had enough.  We are fighting for the future of nursing and the future of our patients. There will be no nurses here in ten years time if things do not change.

Nurses on the picket line. Photos: Seamus Farrelly

"Nurses want to come back to work in Ireland but they can't. I spoke to a student nurse last week that is qualifying in September and she said that about 70 per cent of the group she trained alongside are planning to go abroad and that's the reality," she added.

The town of Navan has come out in support for local nurses and a supply of food and hot drinks was been generously donated by local businesses. 

"We have had great support here this morning from businesses around the town who have come over and given us tea, coffee, cakes and sandwiches to keep us going. We don't want to be here but we want a safer environment for both our patients and nursing staff and this is what it has come to."