Unions At MWRH, Limerick Suspend Industrial Action For 4 Week Period
Following 12 hours of talks on Tuesday under the Chairmanship of Kevin Foley, Director of Conciliation at the Labour Relations Commission, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and SIPTU have agreed to suspend all industrial action at the Mid Western Regional Hospital for a four week period to allow for:
- Full review of rosters and resources across all hospitals in the Mid West to support the patient safety concerns of nurses at the Mid Western Regional Hospital, Limerick;
- Review of all day work that can be transferred to other acute hospitals in the region to free up beds for emergency admissions; and,
- Introduction of structured ward rounds and improved access to diagnostics at weekends by all hospital consultants.
For the duration of this four week period additional resources have been provided to the Emergency Department and HSE management has also committed to minimising the placement of additional trolleys on full in-patient wards.
The LRC will continue to assist the parties throughout the 4 week period, if required, and will convene the parties after 2 weeks to review progress, and at the end of the 4 week period to facilitate the presentation by the HSE of detailed proposals on all roster options and other related matters.
Mary Fogarty, INMO Industrial Relations Officer speaking today: “Wishes to acknowledge the commitment of all nurses at the hospital in seeking to ensure that standards of care for patients are not allowed to fall below acceptable levels. We also acknowledge the input of the Labour Relations Commission in achieving a temporary suspension of industrial action and we hope that the HSE will now utilise this 4 week period to endeavour to prioritise safe patient care at the MWRH Limerick”.
SIPTU Sector Organiser, Louise O’Reilly, said: “The HSE has a lot of work to do over the next four weeks to conduct the review of rosters and to ensure that the patient safety concerns raised by our members are addressed.”
