'A big blow’: INMO to engage with members in Cork on industrial action after HSE extends recruitment freeze
The nurses and midwives of the INMO executive council held an emergency meeting on Friday regarding potential industrial action by the union’s members.
A MOVE to extend the recruitment freeze in the HSE “rubs salt into the wounds” of hospital staff in Cork and across the country who are “already under severe pressure”, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has warned.
The nurses and midwives of the INMO executive council held an emergency meeting on Friday regarding potential industrial action by the union’s members.
The meeting was held in response to the announcement that the HSE would be extending its current recruitment freeze to almost all nursing and midwifery grades until the end of the year, with the exception of 2023 graduates.
The INMO has claimed that the announcement from the HSE came without documentation and without consultation with the union.
Speaking to The Echo, INMO assistant director of industrial relations, Colm Porter, said the news of the extension to the recruitment freeze “rubs salt into the wounds” of its members who are “already under severe pressure”.
“It’s been a big blow to our members right across all of the acute hospitals in the community.
“It was something that we didn’t expect was going to be extended out to nursing and midwifery, considering the amount of vacancies that are currently in place.
“There’s probably not a day goes by that there isn’t some area in the Cork hospitals that are working short staffed,” Mr Porter said.
“We’ve been ringing the alarm bell about the trolley numbers as well and how they’re abnormally high for this time of year and now coming into the winter, we’re probably expecting record numbers of patients who are sick enough to be admitted to a hospital, but don’t have a hospital bed,” he continued.
Mr Porter said the union will now be considering all available options.
“We’re going to be considering any kind of action that’s available to us.
“We’ll be talking to our members across Cork in the coming days and weeks about their appetite to take industrial action regarding this.
“We won’t be shy in balloting them for industrial action should they feel that that’s the only option available to them,” he said.
According to the INMO’s own calculations there are currently approximately 2,800 nursing and midwifery-funded vacancies in the health service, which urgently need to be filled.
INMO general secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, said the move to extend the recruitment freeze could prompt a further exodus of nurses and midwives from the Irish health service.
“In the years that we have been surveying our members on their intention to leave the health service the numbers keep increasing, and this is due to the inordinate amount of stress being placed on them in overcrowded and understaffed environments.
“This measure has the potential to force even more nurses and midwives out of their jobs and out of the country, and that itself poses a long-term risk to the health service and to the people who depend on it,” she said.
“We have been raising the alarm since late summer that we are on track for a winter of severe overcrowding.
“What is urgently needed is a meaningful implementation of the safe staffing framework that guarantees a minimum number of nurses and health care assistants per patient based on dependency and environment.
“This framework, which is government policy, must be underpinned by legislation to protect patient care delivery."
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