This article is from page 4 of the 2007-09-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
NINETY per cent of the staff at En- nis General Hospital are preparing to strike if issues relating to staff- ing numbers at the hospital are not resolved.
Last evening (Monday), more than 90 per cent of the 130 INO nursing staff, 85 per cent of SIPTU’s nursing staff and 100 per cent of the support
staff at the hospital voted in favour of industrial action.
In total, 270 of the hospital’s dis- eruntled 300-member staff are pre- paring to down tools if a resolution to the crisis cannot be found.
Staff and management at the hospi- tal have been involved in a number of industrial relation issues, which were brought to a head with the HSE staff- ing embargo at the beginning of the
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Among the concerns expressed by employees is the night staffing of the male medical and female medical wards. The wards, which can have up to 26 patients each, have just two nurses on night duty in each ward made up of several different rooms.
Following an independent report, it was agreed that three nurses would be provided in each ward at night.
Prior to the staffing embargo, a floating nurse was provided between the two wards and it was agreed to provide another nurse in June.
As a result of the budget freeze, the “floating nurse” has been lost. Staff say they are now concerned by reports that if one of the two nurses on night duty is off sick, there will be no replacement, leaving one nurse responsible for 26 patients.
Following the result of the ballot, Mary Fogarty of the INO said her union 1S now going to seek assistance from the Labour Relations Commis- sion. She said she is particularly concerned about the cutbacks in the nurse-led units at the hospital, includ- ing palliative care, infection control, repertory care and heart failure.
“A blunt curtailment of services at the hospital concerns us most. These nurse-led units are critical to patients even on a humanity level. I will be writing to management again, asking them to pullback on the curtailment of these services,” she said.
Tony Kenny of SIPTU told