Nurses vote to strike as staffing crisis at MUH continues

Chambers calls on Minister for Health to take action about ‘dangerous’ staffing shortages

Áine Ryan

THE Government cannot continue to ignore the nurses of Mayo University Hospital (MUH), who have now been forced to vote for industrial action because of severe staffing and capacity issues at the Castlebar facility. That is the view of Fianna FΡil’s Deputy Lisa Chambers, who has now called on Minister for Health, Simon Harris, to take action about a situation which, she claims, has been allowed to ‘spiral out of control’.
On Thursday last, December 15, 90 percent of the members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) voted in favour of industrial action, ‘as frustration levels among frontline staff boil over into anger’.
“For too long successive Fine Gael Health Ministers have sat back and allowed this situation spiral out of control. Now the reality is that we have more people attending our hospitals while there are fewer nurses on the frontline. They are having to work longer hours, in more stressful and dangerous situations, caring for more patients than ever before. This cannot continue. It’s not safe for nurses or patients,” Chambers said.
She observed that while the problems at the hospital’s A&E department are well known, ‘these have spread throughout our hospital and are a source of major concern’.
“Over the past eight years, the number of nurses in the system has fallen by 3,500. When patient numbers are increasing it is simply unsustainable that nursing levels would stay so critically low. Minister Harris has spent the last few days talking up the increased HSE budget for 2017 – now he must ensure that it’s used to increase staff numbers at Mayo University Hospital and the many other hospitals across the country which are chronically under resourced,” she continued.
“Instead of talking, we need to see real action. Our nurses should not have to be pushed to the end of their tether to the point of industrial action, and I am urging Minister Harris to ensure that enough money from this increased HSE budget will be allocated to increasing nursing numbers across the health service,” Lisa Chambers added.
The industrial action will include one-day stoppages, a work-to-rule and nurses refusing to work beyond their rostered hours. Nurses and midwives will also refuse to be redeployed from one ward to another during a working day. The action is unlikely to be implemented before the end of January.  

‘Winter crisis’
DEPUTY Chambers’ comments come a week after The Mayo News revealed the concerns of a Newport GP, Dr Brian Lennon, who believes that the ‘winter crisis’ has already hit MUH.
“We are used to the ‘winter crisis’ but for problems to be arising so early [in the winter] suggests to me that this winter could be worse than we have seen before.
“The knock-on effect of an overcrowded A&E is that the excellent Medical Assessment Unit becomes a short-stay ward and can’t function as it’s supposed to, creating a vicious circle, because it leaves GPs with no choice but to refer patients to A&E who should be seen in the MAU.”
Dr Lennon outlined a number of measures to resolve the issues.