Nurses working at Beaumont have now decided to step up their campaign against what they say are stressful and unsafe working conditions at the hospital’s emergency department.
They will now begin a work to rule action on June 10, when nurses affiliated to the INMO will refuse to carry out non-essential or administrative duties.
According to Lorraine Monaghan, industrial relations officer with the INMO, some measures agreed at the LRC earlier this year in relation to increased staffing and other promises to tackle overcrowding have not actually been implemented.
Ms. Monaghan said “Agreement was reached last January in respect of additional staffing and measures to address the overcrowding in the department, however those measurements have not been implemented.”
“The staff that have been promised have not been recruited although four months have passed. So the department is constantly understaffed even though it is dangerously overcrowded.”
“It is a disgrace that both patients and staff are exposed to such appalling conditions in this day and age.”
“This unsafe situation has to be addressed, once and for all, in the interest of safe patient care and the health and safety of staff working in the department’.
Regardless of the planned action, nurses have stressed the fact that essential care for patients will be provided.