The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has served notice of industrial action on HSE management at Naas General Hospital. Nurses in Naas General Hospital will begin industrial action on 9th of February.
INMO members in Naas General Hospital believe it has become increasingly unacceptable and unsafe that HSE management continue to disregard persistent and unresolved staffing deficits, while service expansion proceeds without adequate resourcing, resulting in significant clinical risk.
Despite repeated efforts to highlight these clinical risk concerns, no substantive action has been taken to address the unsafe staffing levels currently impacting patient safety, staff wellbeing, and compliance with agreed safe staffing frameworks.
Current staffing levels across multiple clinical areas are unsafe, unsustainable, and non-compliant with professional standards. The ongoing reliance on agency, overtime, and redeployment places both patient safety and staff wellbeing at significant risk. There are significant staffing deficits across the Emergency Department, 22% less than the recommended number of 62.5 whole-time equivalents which is based on the 2022 Safe Staffing Framework. Emergency Department attendances have increased from 29,592 in 2022 to 37,654 in 2025, approximately 27%. The current staffing cohort is 48.5WTE, with 8 staff on maternity leave/unpaid leave that have not been replaced and with no uplift for the increase in attendances.
Our members are very disappointed that it has come to this, but unfortunately, they feel the risks being posed to patients due to ongoing understaffing problems have become too significant and that their concerns are not being taken seriously.
Naas General Hospital has been consistently overcrowded, with over 5,004 patients cared for on trolleys since July 2024. Attendances at the Emergency Department in Naas have increased significantly, with over 37,000 presentations in 2025, without a corresponding increase in staffing or bed capacity. Nurses in Naas are advocating for patients who deserve safe staffing levels and are highlighting that 83% occupancy is the recognised safe level, which is breached on a daily basis. They are also reminding their employer of its obligation to provide staff with a healthy and safe workplace, an obligation that is not currently being met.
The decision to ballot for industrial action has not been made lightly, but it reflects the deep frustration, exhaustion, and burnout among nursing staff who have continued to deliver high-quality care despite ongoing and unresolved staffing crises. Staffing deficits are now directly impacting the hospital’s ability to maintain safe, effective, and sustainable service delivery.