Nurses are planning strike action at University Hospital Galway because of unsafe working conditions at its Emergency Department.
The Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO ) is balloting members at the city’s ED in response to what it describes as “untenable” workloads, and unsafe conditions arising from staffing deficits.
At a meeting of the HSE’s regional health forum this week, it was confirmed that UHG staff recorded almost 120 assaults over the past three years. The shocking figures were revealed in response to queries from Galway city councillor Shane Forde (FG ) who also works in another hospital.
The possibility for strike action looms as hospitals and GPs across the country report winter flu season has arrived early.
The HSE’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC ) is warning of surging hospital admissions over coming weeks, confirming that inpatient flu cases doubled last week to 418, compared to 213 the previous week. Its modelling predicts 1,500 flu admissions in mid-January. Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV ) cases rose slightly in late November, while Covid 19 remains at low levels.
Public health doctors are urging vaccination now, especially for healthcare workers and over 60-year-olds, as protection may take two weeks to kick in.
The INMO claims staffing deficits in Galway were communicated to the HSE in July, when winter planning was underway, and that even then its members were warning they could not provide a safe service to patients.
There were more than 1,000 patients on trolleys across Galway in November. After Limerick, UHG was the second-most congested hospital with 925 on trolleys. Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe had 84. Last month, UHG’s clinical director ordered all departments to discharge as many patients as possible to prepare for serious overcrowding.
“The situation in the Galway ED is the result of a number of decisions and short-term solutions that do not take into account safety, care standards or staff wellbeing,” says Mary Fogarty, INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations.
“A combination of unfilled positions, a failure to retain existing staff, and short-term or lacklustre recruitment campaigns, have left the department in a dangerous situation. Patients are now waiting up to three hours to be triaged, and the department is suffering from a lack of round-the-clock clinical oversight, leading to risks to patients and intolerable pressure for staff,” says Fogarty.
“Now, as our members have been warning, increased winter attendances to the ED, and the surge in demand caused by winter viruses, mean the situation has become untenable for both staff and patients.”
UHG managers this week began a public consultation process on the hospital’s future. Plans include two new buildings with 300 extra inpatient beds, a new ED, and permanent heliport.
Phil Ní Sheaghdha, INMO General Secretary, told RTÉ this week that the HSE should treat this winter’s influenza outbreak as an emergency. The HSE says activity in all its EDs has hit record levels, and that it has implemented delayed transfer of care measures, improved access to diagnostic procedures, and enhanced patient flow protocols to deal with the numbers.
“I have been walking in and out of EDs across the country the past few weeks, seeing people on trolleys in very inappropriate spaces… right up against each other, with absolutely no chance of being protected from catching the flu if it’s in that environment… in EDs and wards with no natural ventilation – it’s a recipe for cross-infection,” Ní Sheaghdha told reporters.
