Crunch time as nurses vote for action

Discussions are underway to prevent strike action at the A&E Department in Cavan General during the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil in the town, which is expected to play host to more than 250,000 visitors over the course of the week. HSE management and INNO officials are engaged in a crunch meeting this morning (Wednesday) in a bid to stave off industrial action by nurses working in the Emergency Department of the hospital. Nurses working in the intensely pressurised department voted unanimously for industrial action in a ballot undertaken by the union and this decision was subsequently sanctioned by the IMNO Executive Council. If no headway is made today the IMNO will issue notice of industrial action to HSE management with the mandatory three week notice period expiring at the time the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil is being held in Cavan. With many thousands of people converging on the county town and its environs the All Ireland Fleadh places a huge demand on services at Cavan General Hospital which is in emergency mode for the week of this premier national event. The overcrowding at Cavan A&E Department has been a contentious issue for several years now - the problems there aggravated by the ending of emergency medical services at Monaghan General Hospital and the more recent curtailment of services at Our Lady's Hospital in Navan. IMNO industrial relations officer, Tony Fitzpatrick, said that if industrial action goes ahead it will be an official dispute and other nursing staff in the hospital cannot be assigned to the Emergency Department in the event of staff at the unit engaging in a work stoppage or work to rule. He said that the nurses at the Cavan Emergency Department were forced into this course of action because their message was not getting through to HSE management that conditions there were unsafe and intolerable. "It is unacceptable and unsafe. It is undignified for patients to have to lie on trolleys or sit in chairs for very, very long periods. It is just not good enough. It is all about protecting patients and ensuring that when they come to A&E they will be looked after in a safe manner. Management must come up with solutions this morning or notice will be served," said Mr. Fitzpatrick. In recent days there has been a noticeable reduction in the number of patients on trolleys at Cavan General Hospital. This contrasts with the situation at its sister hospital, Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda where there has been a huge increase in the number of patients on trolleys - with a figure of 50 people on trolleys at the Drogheda hospital on Tuesday morning. Prior to this it was the Cavan hospital that was under greatest pressure with numbers on trolleys being in the high 30s at the hospital on a regular basis. The IMNO say that the reduction in the numbers on trolleys in Cavan is due to the decrease in attendances at the hospital and once it rises to normal levels the numbers waiting for beds will increase again. There are not enough beds in Cavan, they claim. Meanwhile Deputy Caoimhghin Ó Caoláin has raised the crisis at Cavan Emergency Department with both Minister for Health, Dr. James Reilly and Chief Executive of the HSE, Mr. Cathal Magee, at the Oireachtas committee level. Deputy O Caolain described nurses at Cavan General Hospital as being "at the end of their tether" because the hospital is totally over-stretched. "The failure to increase capacity at the hospital following the downgrading of Monaghan General Hospital, together with the recruitment embargo, have resulted in enormous pressure on staff and patients at Cavan's Emergency Department. Patients are spending up to four days on trolleys and chairs, and this at the height of summer when demand is usually lighter than in winter," said the Cavan/Monaghan Sinn Féin Deputy.