The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has announced it is to ballot its members in Cork University Hospital’s Theatre Department for industrial action.
The union has announced its intention to ballot for industrial action in the backdrop of insufficient staffing in the theatre department of CUH including thousands of hours of time-in-lieu owed, a misuse of the on-call system, significant overruns and unsafe staffing.
INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations, Liam Conway said:
This ballot comes at the end of a long process in which we have tried to resolve the ongoing staffing and patient flow issues within CUH’s Theatre Department. Our members have lost confidence in the hospital’s ability to address these concerns through normal engagement channels, and have now been left with no option but to escalate the matter.
Nurses working in the CUH Theatre Department are owed over 5,500 hours of time-in-lieu but due to constant overruns on theatre lists coupled with insufficient staffing, they are unable to take the time owed.
There are continued occurrences of staff working past their shifts due to poor scheduling and overruns. Our members have raised issues regarding patient safety, delayed and late starts of cases, lack of post-op beds for recovery, and the reliance of members to work past their rostered hours.
CUH management are well aware that they are in breach of national agreements when it comes to the management of its theatre department scheduling. The absence of progress on the matter of safety of our members, patients and the breach of a national agreement, our members are left with no alternative but to escalate our dispute.