Claire Murphy, Evening Herald, August 24, 2011 First they came for our builders, now the Australian government wants to lure hundreds of Irish nurses Down Under with permanent job contracts. Officials from New South Wales are embarking on a recruitment drive to hire up to 200 Irish nurses. The move is part of a programme over the next four years to recruit 1,400 nursing professionals as part of a massive expansion programme by the Australian health services. The jobs in the largest state in Australia, which includes Sydney, are being offered in the areas of mental health, midwifery and intensive care. ... Now

RTÉ, August 3, 2011 Psychiatric nurses at Saint Ita's Hospital in Portrane in Co Dublin have agreed to defer industrial action until next week. The dispute is over the Government's plan to close the acute unit at the hospital at the end of this month. Industrial action began at the hospital at 8 AM but was postponed at 11.30 AM following agreement with the Health Service Executive to attend talks. Members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association are to meet the HSE at the Labour Relations Commission next Thursday, 11 August. The union says the closure of the unit will mean a loss of up to 50 beds for the area. ... Nurses

Vicki Weller, Kildare Nationalist, July 26, 2011 A massive 86% of nurses at Naas Hospital have voted to take industrial action over lack of staff and conditions at the hospital. The Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) announced the result of the ballot on Wednesday last and the organisation will be considering the precise nature of the industrial action in the weeks ahead. Saying that he had anticipated that the vote would be carried, INMO spokesperson Derek Reilly admitted to the Kildare Nationalist that he had been “surprised by the level of anger” shown by the Naas nurses. ... Nurses

Aoife Barry, The Journal, July 8, 2011 Nurses at Naas General Hospital are to ballot for industrial action because of what they term the “unsafe conditions” there. Twenty four beds remain closed off in the hospital, along with a medical assessment unit. Derek Reilly, industrial relations officer with the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation claimed that hospital management has placed patients on trolleys throughout the hospital in an effort to ‘play down’ the figures in the emergency department. These patients do not have access to oxygen and other vital equipment, and crucially, the hospital is chronically understaffed. These patients are not in a safe environment. ... Naas

Mary O’connor, Galway Advertiser, May 12, 2011 A trade union which represents nurses, care assistants and support staff at Galway University Hospitals says it is “gobsmacked” by the HSE’s decision to appoint three new management staff with a combined salary of €379,000 to the group. The health authority advertised the positions of chief executive, chief operations officer and chief financial officer in a Sunday newspaper. The move follows the shock resignation of colorectal surgeon Mr Myles Joyce last week and long running criticism of UHG’s poor performance rating in the HSE HealthStat league table. ... Union

Eithne Donnellan, Irish Times, November 16, 2010 One-third of nurses across the State believe the quality of patient care provided in their hospitals has deteriorated over the past year, according to a new survey. Carried out by the School of Nursing at Dublin City University, the survey also found evidence of high levels of burnout among nursing staff. Some 1,406 nurses in 115 units in 30 hospitals were surveyed for the research, which is part of a longer term Europe-wide study looking at nurses’ qualifications, productivity, their working environment and its impact on the retention of nurses, as well as patient outcomes. ... Survey

Dundalk Tabloid, November 9, 2010 Many of our young nursing graduates now have to leave Ireland and go farther afield in order to find employment opportunities. Kevin McKenna and Dara Maguire, along with fifteen other nursing graduates, are getting ready to head off to Surrey in East London in the coming weeks. Kevin and Dara come from Smarmore, Ardee, and have just graduated with a Bachelor of Science in General Nursing from Dundalk Institute of Technology. Both Kevin and Dara are former pupils of Ballapousta National School. Kevin is a past pupil of Ardee Community School and Dara is a past pupil of Saint Louis Secondary School in Carrickmocross. ... Local

Jennifer Hough, Irish Examiner, November 9, 2010 Mental health services will be "impossible to maintain" if the HSE’s own analysis of staffing levels is borne out and a further 1,000 nurses leave their jobs this year, documents have revealed. Already at breaking point with the loss of 1,500 nursing staff over the last three years, internal HSE documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal the extent of the crisis and the difficulties HSE management faced to secure an exemption of 100 posts from the Department of Finance. ... Mental

Martin Wall, Irish Times, September 29, 2010 Nurses have been told by their union that they should not co-operate with any dictatorial approach by local health service management in implementation of change and reform measures. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) maintained local health managers had been putting forward significant reform proposals and arguing that these must be implemented under the Croke Park agreement. The union said this was not the way that the deal on public service pay and reform should be operated. In a memo to its 40,000 members, the union’s general secretary Liam Doran said ... Nurses

Mayo Advertiser, September 10, 2010 An anti-health cuts website set up by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation is attracting huge online traffic from beleaguered health care workers who are campaigning to keep their jobs and make the health system work. Highlighting the closure of 19 beds in Mayo General Hospital at the male surgical unit as part of a total closure to date of more than 1,300 hospital beds nationwide, contributors to the site have also written open letters to the Minister for Health stating their case on current issues while appealing for more people to join in and voice their concerns about the Irish health service. ... Nurses

Niall Hunter, Irish Health, September 9, 2010 The nurses and midwives union have called for the health safety body HIQA to carry out an urgent review of services at Limerick Regional Hospital, following reports of severe overcrowding there. The INMO said patient care is being severely compromised at the Limerick hospital, with 45 emergency patients awaiting access to a hospital bed this morning. The union said 24 of these patients were in the emergency department, 10 in a transit lounge and 11 behind doors or on corridors of already full wards. The INMO said that 135 beds needed for Limerick Regional following the reconfiguration of services in the mid-west region from Ennis and Nenagh hospitals ... Concern

Galway News, September 9, 2010 Nursing representatives say they are hopeful the Labour court will uphold a national agreement over the replacement of student nurses. Members of the INMO and HSE management appeared at a Labour Court hearing this morning over issue, and a ruling is expected in the next seven days. The HSE west is proposing the non-replacement of around 200 student nurses at hospitals across the west this month. However, a current agreement with the HSE maintains that students would be replaced on a 'two for one' basis, whereby one qualified nurse would replace two students. INMO spokesperson, Noreen Muldoon claims that without replacing these students, hospital beds and services will close.

Ocean fm, September 9, 2010 A decision from the Labour Court on a dispute between unions and the Health Service Executive West over the non replacement of student nurses is expected early next week. The hearing concluded in Dublin at lunchtime where the Health Service Executive would not confirm whether there would be further cuts to nursing staff next year. The row came before the court over plans by the health service not to replace student nurses which is in addition to cutbacks to nursing hours in a bid to tackle a 65 million euro budget deficit. The move equates to a loss of around 43 positions in Sligo General Hospital and a reduction in the amount of nursing staff available in the Western region.

Ocean fm, September 9, 2010 A dispute between unions and the Health Service Executive West over the non replacement of student nurses will come before the Labour court this morning. Both the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and SIPTU’s nursing branch have refused to engage in local discussions on cost containment plans until this issue is resolved. Talks at the Labour Relations Commission broke down last week over what unions have described as last minute plans to cut a number of student nursing posts. The move equates to a loss of around 43 positions in Sligo General Hospital and a reduction in the amount of nursing staff available in the Western region. Industrial Relations Officer with the INMO, Noel Treanor is in Dublin ahead of the Labour Court hearing.

Elaine Edwards, Irish Times, September 7, 2010 The main union representing nurses has called for an urgent review of services at a Limerick hospital, claiming that patient care is now “severely compromised” by overcrowding. The Irish Nurses’ and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) said some 45 patients were currently waiting for a hospital bed, including 11 patients “behind doors” or on corridors in already full wards. A further 24 patients are in the emergency department, and 10 are in a transit lounge. ... Crisis