Nurses and midwives protests against understaffing

Flags and placards swirled in the blustery winds as nurses and midwives formed a line outside Cavan General Hospital in protest at the unsafe staffing levels and overcrowding.
 

Cavan's INMO members held the display of dissatisfaction to draw attention to a range of issues from staffing levels to the ongoing difficulty of dealing with patients on trolleys in the hospital.

Today's protests [Thursday September 20] was a continuation of a series of actions which began last week in Galway, Cork and Limerick after the HSE admitted having no plan for the coming winter, despite appeals from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).

 

Nurses on the protest said they were compelled to take action: “Midwives are constantly apologising to patients for the conditions in the health service. Thousands are trapped on trolleys every week, and things will only get worse as winter bites. Yet the HSE still has no plan to recruit extra staff or cut back services to cope with the demand.”

 

The protest ran from 1:00pm to 2:00pm and up to 50 nurses took part in the rally.