Strike action looms at Cork emergency department
Nurses working at the Mercy University hospital are due to ballot today for a withdrawal of labour over concerns that unsafe staffing levels are compromising patient care. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said the situation at the Hospital’s emergency department has become “particularly acute” since the closures of two other such departments in the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital and Mallow General Hospital. Nurses at the Mercy University hospital's emergency department are reportedly inundated with patients, compounded by a shortage of acute beds in hospitals throughout the region. It has been reported in today's Irish Examiner that among the issues of concern to the INMO include occasions when nurses are assigned five to eight patients for observation, when the ratio should be two patients per nurse. Under-staffing on day and night shifts is another primary concern for the INMO as well as the use of the dedicated pediatric bay to cater for an overflow of adult patients. Hospital management say they have taken a number of steps to address such difficulties, however nurses say they plan to ballot for strike action to protect themselves and their patients. The ballot will involve around 30 staff.
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