NURSES IN LIMERICK have threatened industrial action if they do not receive assurances from the HSE today that it will make the Emergency Department at the Mid Western Regional Hospital a priority.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation have called on the HSE to ensure that there will be more dedicated beds for emergency admissions at the hospital.

Up to 70 nurses in the Emergency Department are currently balloting on whether to start industrial actions ahead of a meeting with the HSE this afternoon.

Industrial Relations Officer Mary Fogarty told TheJournal.ie that any industrial action will include a work-to-rule and possibly some work stopages.

“There could be withdrawals of labour for short periods of time,” said Fogarty.

The INMO has asked the HSE to prioritise the Emergency Department at the hospital so that patients can be given a bed as quickly as possible.

“The hospital is trying to cope with elective and day surgery cases but the sickest patients come in through the Emergency Department,” explained Fogarty.

The situation is so serious we need to prioritise the sickest people and get them off trolleys as soon as possible.

The nurses’ ballot comes after a decision by the HSE last month to reduce the number of available acute beds by 25.

The INMO claims the reductions have led to more people lying on trolleys in A&E while in-patient beds lie empty. The situation has been further exacerbated by the closure of 50 acute beds in Ennis and Nenagh hospitals in 2009, said Fogarty.

So far in 2011, about 2,215 patients have had to stay on trolleys at the hospital. Last month, 342 people were admitted on trolleys, an increase of 156 on 2010 figures.

In 2009, when nurses raised concerns about bed capacity, a total of 1,506 patients were seen on trolleys.

“The factual situation for our members throughout the hospital is that they find themselves, and the attending patients, in an unsafe situation with overcrowded wards…and increasing trolley figures in the Emergency Department,” added Fogarty.

The INMO will, in advance of issuing further notice of industrial action, seek assurances from the HSE, at a meeting scheduled for this afternoon, that all patients requiring admission via the Emergency Department are allocated a hospital bed on a priority basis and that all other services are adjusted to facilitate same. At the present time this is the only safe and viable option for delivery of emergency care to patients,” she concluded.

The INMO, HSE and SIPTU are due to meet at 3.3opm today. The HSE had no comment to make ahead of the meeting.