The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has announced its intention to ballot members over the HSE’s “baseless recruitment moratorium” and its impact on staffing. The embargo has resulted in more than 2,000 vacancies across the health service, which “has led to further levels of unsafe staffing” across all sectors of the health service, and “is having a detrimental impact on patient care”. The organisation says that “for too long the goodwill of nurses and midwives has been taken for granted”, and that the ongoing situation is “a step too far” which will not be tolerated any longer.
Commenting on the planned ballots, INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Over 2,000 much-needed nursing and midwifery posts have now been effectively abolished by the HSE. This means the safety of our members at work is severely compromised and their ability to provide safe, appropriate, and timely care is not possible. The INMO Executive Council, made up of working nurses and midwives, have considered every possible option but feel strongly that the only response is a strong collective one from members, and that this response must be an industrial relations response… In continuing their moratorium through extremely limiting recruitment caps, the HSE have gone too far and are imposing restrictions so severe, broken staffing agreements, and disregarded the working conditions you now are expected to provide care in. As safety critical professionals, we cannot tolerate this impact on patient and staff safety any longer.”
INMO members in the public sector will be balloted from 14 October.
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