Tag Archives: Tony Kenny

UP to 1,200 nurses in the Mid-West look set to approve industrial action early in the new year over “unsafe” plans to provide more than 100 extra beds in corridors and unsuitable rooms at Ennis Hospital and other local acute hospitals without extra staffing. Members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives’ Organisation (INMO) and SIPTU will ballot for industrial action during the first week of January over a new HSE escalation plan, which is designed to tackle chronic overcrowding in the emergency department (ED) at University Hospital Limerick (UHL). The general consensus indicates this ballot for industrial action will be approved by a large majority, paving the way for a work-to-rule as a starting point possibly during the third or fourth week of January. INMO representative, Mary Fogarty has demanded to know who sanctioned the reconfiguration of acute hospitals services in the Mid-West, which involved the closure of 24-hour emergency services in Ennis without putting the required additional resources into …

CLARE patients who are being transported to the University Hospital Limerick (UHL) are being “shortchanged” due to the “unsafe” levels of overcrowding, a nursing union has claimed. SIPTU health division representative, Tony Kenny, also expressed concern about the increased risk infection being posed to patients, who were among the 47 waiting for treatment on trolleys on Monday morning in the emergency department. According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), the number of patients waiting to be admitted fell to 35 on Tuesday. The union is supporting calls from the INMO for the implementation of the Major Emergency Plan at UHL to bring about a level of control and safety at the emergency department. Mr Kenny claimed, at one stage, an ambulance was waiting about 20 minutes to transfer a patient from the vehicle into the emergency department because there was no spare trolley to accommodate them. Noting that the recent HIQA report outlined the emergency department was not …