Irish Health, November 16, 2005

Specialist nurses can help reduce waiting lists for treatment by child and adolescent mental health services, a conference in Dublin was told today.

According to Gordon Lynch, clinical nurse specialist in the HSE's south western area a year-long waiting list for child and adolescent mental health services in Kildare has been reduced to less than four weeks through the use of advanced nursing skills to review all referrals to the service. ... Nurses

Ed Carty, Irish Examiner, November 14, 2005

The Government should use the expected €1 billion extra in Revenue coffers to ease the growing pressure on overcrowded hospitals, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said yesterday.

In a pre-Budget submission, it claimed staffing policies were fatally flawed with thousands of nurses leaving to work abroad. ... Nursing

Ireland On-Line, November 13, 2005

The Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) has claimed that the country could be bereft of Irish nurses in 10 years' time, if current staffing policies continue.

In its pre-budget submission, the group said that 11,000 Irish-trained nurses have left in the past seven years. ... More

Irish Nurses Organisation, November 12, 2005

Notwithstanding the Tanaiste’s ten-point plan, announced 12 months ago to ease the situation, the situation continues unabated.

The Irish Nurses Organisation continues to campaign, against overcrowding in A&E Departments, in view of the fact that the incidents of overcrowding has continued, at unacceptable levels, throughout the summer period. ... Background

The Health Service Executive is to instruct hospitals to stop levying daily in-patient charges on people on trolleys in accident and emergency departments.
Irish Times, April 28, 2005

Patient representative groups had complained that patients on trolleys awaiting admission to a hospital bed were being asked to pay a €55 daily charge in some cases. A spokesman for the Health Service Executive last night that "this should not have happened".

"We are instructing hospitals that charges should not be levied in these circumstances in the future, the spokesman for the HSE told The Irish Times last night. ... Hospitals

IOL Breaking News, October 26, 2005

Allowing nurses to prescribe drugs will help create a more patient-friendly health service, it was claimed today.

As T·naiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney revealed that laws giving nurses the added responsibility could be in place by Christmas, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said the move was long overdue.

Liam Doran, INO general secretary, said it would allow patients to get much-needed care more quickly. ... Allowing

IOL Breaking News, October 25, 2005

The Irish Nurses Organisation has predicted a serious global nursing crisis over the next 10 years.

The group says nurses are leaving the profession as quickly as they're entering, due to poor working conditions.

INO chiefs are meeting with the T·naiste, Mary Harney and the head of the Health Service Executive, Professor Brendan Drumm today as part of the nurseís annual conference. ... INO

Daily Mail, October 24, 2005

Around 60 student nurses at St James's Hospital Dublin were staging a sit-in protest after management attempted to charge them £67.68 each for immunisation injections ...

Around 60 student nurses at St James's Hospital Dublin were staging a sit-in protest after management attempted to charge them £67.68 each for immunisation injections. The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) claimed the Government had agreed to give the jabs for hepatitis B and tuberculosis without charge, but hospital bosses were demanding money. ... Student

IOL Breaking News, October 21, 2005

T·naiste and health minister Mary Harney has become immune to her own campaigns, an opposition TD claimed tonight.

Five days after the Tanaiste warned that all frontline health workers should be protected from deadly disease, Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said it was wholly unreasonable to deny nurses vaccinations.

Student nurses at St James’s Hospital were told they would have to pay Ä100 for injections against Hepatitis B and Tuberculosis.

Around 60 of them staged a sit-in protest at the hospital to highlight the dispute. ... Harney

Nigel Gould, Belfast Telegraph, October 20, 2005

Almost 10,000 nurses have left Ulster's health service over the last ten years, it can be revealed today.

And while new figures also show that thousands of new nurses have been appointed in the last five years, nursing chiefs say there has been a large reliance on overseas recruitment to plug severe staffing gaps.

Just over the last year some 893 nurses have left the NHS here, for a variety of reasons including retirement, transfer to the private sector and to join health services in other countries. ... 10,000

Derry Journal, October 18, 2005

A shock total of 176 nurses in Altnagelvin Hospital have been subjected to either a physical or verbal assault in the last year, it was revealed yesterday.

A spokesperson for Altnagelvin disclosed that from September 04 to September 05, 63 nurses were physically attacked and 113 were verbally assaulted.

The figures were released following a Northern Ireland wide report which revealed 3,000 nurses in total were assaulted over the last 12 months. ... 176

Claire O’Sullivan, Irish Examiner, October 6, 2005

Clinical nurse managers had complained to the HSE about being forced to attend PPARS training courses when hospital staffing levels were at critical levels, it was revealed yesterday.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) has described such moves as being “indicative of the obsession with PPARS” within the HSE.

They also said nurse and doctor training rooms in the HSE Southern Area were taken over by the PPARS team without consultation with medical staff, who were left without premises. ... Nurses

Ireland Online, September 27, 2005

Nurses should reject a proposed benchmarking exercise and pursue improvements in pay and conditions directly with employers, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said today.

More than 300 members of the INO are meeting at a special delegate conference in Dublin today where they will debate a motion rejecting the terms of reference for the proposed benchmarking body. ... Nurses

Ireland Online, September 27, 2005

Nurses vowed to step up their campaign against overcrowding on hospital A&E wards today to demand immediate Government action to solve the problem.

Over 300 delegates to the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) special conference voted in favour of stepping up their “Enough is Enough” protest campaign to highlight the problem afflicting the country's hospitals.

Noel Treanor, Industrial Relations Officer of the INO, said the Health Minister Mary Harney’s 10-point plan had not worked to solve the problem. ... Nurses

The Irish Times, September 16, 2005

Top management at the main teaching hospitals in Dublin have told the Government that improved hygiene and cleanliness will not be enough on their own to tackle growing MRSA rates and that additional State investment to improve facilities and tackle overcrowding will be required. ... Crowded