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Nurses suspend work-to-rule at Limerick's Regional Hospital
OVER 300 nurses at the Mid Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle have voted to suspend a work-to-rule action, which has been ongoing since the beginning of January.
The work-to-rule has been lifted after agreement was reached with the HSE in relation to plans to alleviate chronic overcrowding at the hospital.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has confirmed the industrial action will be suspended for the next four weeks to facilitate the implementation of a pilot plan at the Regional Hospital.
It is hoped the plan will help ease pressures within wards at the Regional Hospital and that it will bring to an end the practice of placing additional trolleys on wards.
"These proposals include an allocation of 42 beds every day for the emergency department and the designation of particular beds in the hospital for surgery and for medicine," said Mary Fogarty, Industrial Relations Officer with the INMO.
"We are also looking at nurses and non-consultant hospital doctors becoming part of the team that discharge patients from the hospital so there is a lot of work to be done in the next four weeks and our members are fully committed to working with the HSE to achieve those objectives at the hospital and to reduce overcrowding."
Nurses at the hospital began their work-to-rule in January following a decision by the HSE to reduce the backlog in the Emergency Department by placing trolleys on in-patient wards.
At the time, the HSE defended its decision to spread resources across all departments. "Patients must be the priority, and there is no question of any trade union being allowed to usurp clinical judgement and dictate where they are to be placed in the hospital," said a spokesman.
The HSE has welcomed the decision of nurses to lift their work-to-rule for the next month.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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