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NURSES WORKING IN University Hospital Limerick (UHL) ICU are calling for two beds on the ward to be closed by hospital management on a temporary basis until “suitable qualified” nurses can be recruited.
The nurses, who are members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, are taking part in work-to-rule industrial action, which means that they will only perform duties to the letter of their contract, without taking on additional work.
The INMO said that this is an unprecedented step for these nurses to take, and that they are doing so over deep concerns about “the potential deviation away from one nurse to one patient care in the ICU”.
The INMO further stated that staffing in the UHL ICU is currently operating at a 22% deficit, which means that nearly a quarter of the required nurses are not available on the roster.
Despite this, 100% of the ICU beds on the ward remain open.
INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations, Mary Fogarty said that regularly, shifts in the ICU are “significantly depleted”, and that this seems likely to continue.
“The lack of consistent safe staffing in the intensive care unit is having a detrimental impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of our members working in this unit and their patients,” she said.
Fogarty added that the INMO is calling on hospital management to close two of the unit’s beds, until such a time that qualified and experienced nurses are recruited to take up the empty posts in the ICU.
“Unlike other hospitals experiencing similar nursing deficits, management in Limerick have been unwilling to do this thus far,” she said.
Fogarty added that INMO members have not taken the decision to begin work-to-rule lightly, but rather they feel like “all other avenues” to resolve the matter have been closed off by hospital management.
UHL has experienced significant overcrowding this year.
In January of this year a “major internal incident” was announced as the hospital became overwhelmed with patient numbers.
The downgrading of Ennis Hospital, as well as other smaller hospitals in the surrounding areas, has been pointed to by health campaigners and doctors as the key reason for the overcrowding.
The emergency departments in these hospitals were closed over a decade ago, when the UHL emergency department was expanded.
A pilot project to alleviate the impact of overcrowding at UHL was launched in January, which saw patients in the midwest being taken directly to Ennis Hospital rather than waiting on a trolley.
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I had to get a chest x-ray in UHL two weeks ago as an outpatient. I was in and out extremely quickly because I had an allotted time. But the conditions I seen as I walked through the hospital on the way to xray were nothing short of horrific. Just outside the xray dept on a corridor with no blankets was an elderly gent on a back board and neck Brace on a trolley. What looked like his son was with him. Within 1 foot of the elderly man there were carpenters changing/fixing a set of double doors so were drilling/banging/cutting. I’d say the saw dust was landing on the old lads head. How the son remained calm is beyond me. And it’s not the carpenters fault, they are doing their duties. But no way should that man who was so sick be left in the position he was. Overcrowding is life threatening
Remember when nursing was a caring profession, don’t get me wrong I’m sure it’s a tough job but they are well paid for it.
@marklars81: You’ve obviously never had the misfortune of being in hospital or UHL for that matter. Third world conditions. And if the ICU is falling apart imagine the condition of standard wards and A&E.
@icaniwont: I’ve been in a few, never in UHL to be fair. But I’m talking about the profession as a whole, the caring is gone out of it.
@marklars81: Managers managing managers all over the HSE, all handsomely paid but it’s all the nursrs fault.
The nurses are the ones still caring for the patients.
@marklars81: define “well”?
@marklars81: It is a tough job and whether they are well paid or not is debatable. But nobody should have to work in the conditions currently being endured in UHL. Imagine starting a twelve hour shift in an environment where you have to perform the duties of 2 or 3 people, and those duties involve patients who are often in life or death situations? Imagine it was a member of your family, your mother, your child, who was left waiting for lifesaving treatment because there aren’t enough nurses to go around the ICU beds? Now do you think nurses should just put up with it?
I thought all of the beds were already full and people were also on trolleys. Shouldn’t the nurses ask to close the trolleys first??
@Paulco: No that’s the managements job. Managers have proven to be incapable for years, especially the top tier.
But yeah it’s all the nurses fault, clown.
@Ger. You missed my sarcasm…..
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