The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has welcomed the publication of HIQA’s  Overview Report of their monitoring programme into emergency departments.

INMO General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha said:

“The report published by HIQA today compounds what the INMO has been consistently highlighting – our hospitals are under enormous pressure due to capacity issues and unsafe staffing. 

“The report is particularly stark when it comes to safe staffing in our hospitals. According to HIQA, of the seven emergency departments they inspected, only one hospital was properly staffed. This is unacceptable. We know that many nurses are leaving emergency departments because of the conditions that they are faced with. This phenomenon cannot continue into 2023. 

“Over 70% of the hospitals that HIQA inspected were over capacity. This is borne out in the INMO TrolleyWatch figures. Today alone over 638 patients were without a bed with many patients facing long waits before being admitted to a trolley. We know that excess time spent on a trolley or an inadequate bed has negative health implications for patients. 

“We have sought an urgent meeting with the Minister for Health in the coming week to discuss how a more proactive approach can be taken to tackling the very serious challenges that exist in our emergency departments. Trade unions raised this issue as part of our engagements at the Labour Employer Economic Forum (LEEF). We are strongly of the view that emergency measures are now needed to prevent the unnecessary continuation of these inhumane and undignified conditions for patients and really unhealthy working conditions for nurses and midwives and other healthcare workers.”

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