The Health Minister has been called on to urgently address staff shortages at the region’s main hospital.
Nurses union the INMO is balloting it’s members on industrial action, amid frustration over a refusal by the UL Hospitals Group to attend talks at the Workplace Relations Commission.
The INMO says strike action is among the options being being considered by nurses at University Hospital Limerick over the coming weeks.
The union has begun a ballot of it’s members on industrial action, amid frustration over what they say is a failure by hospital management to engage in talks at the Workplace Relations Commission.
Nurses say the vacancy rate is as high as 20% in the Emergency Department and 30% on some wards.
However, the UL Hospitals Group says only 5.3% of its 1,700 nursing and midwife roles are vacant – though this doesn’t include temporary vacancies.
They also insist that local recruitment campaigns are ongoing and that over 130 staff nurses have been hired this year.
INMO Midwest Representative Mary Fogarty says nurses won’t take a decision to strike lightly.
Clare’s Sinn Féin has described staffing shortages at the Region’s Main Hospital as “truly shocking”.
Violet Ann Wynne says the figure doesn’t scratch the surface when other workers including porters and catering staff are taken into consideration.
The Kilrush TD inists it’s time that both Hospital Management and the Minister for Health act to resolve the matter, saying it’s of particular concern.
UL Hospitals Group Response:
Nurses and midwives, and all staff across UL Hospitals Group, have provided exceptional service throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in keeping patients, their colleagues and wider community safe. We have continued to recruit nurses and midwives throughout the pandemic to meet the additional demands of Covid-19 while also planning to recruit the additional staff needed as we increase bed capacity.
Staff turnover and resultant vacancies are a feature of large organisations. The adjusted turnover rate for 2018 (the most readily available HSE data) for UL Hospitals Group was, at 6.3%, the third lowest of the seven hospital groups. We actively endeavour to fill deficits as part of an ongoing recruitment process. Underpinning this is the necessity to comply with the HSE Pay and Numbers Strategy, with an agreed staffing ceiling.
Vacancies among nursing and midwives, our largest single group of staff, are dynamic and stood at 91.7 WTE (whole-time equivalents) at the end of July 2020. This was out of a total of 1,728 WTE nurses and midwives employed across the Group. This figure does not include temporary vacancies resulting from staff on maternity leave, sick leave etc. We utilise agency and overtime to cover temporary vacancies and we use every opportunity to convert agency workers to permanent staff. During the pandemic, we have been grateful for nursing retirees, existing staff on career breaks, unpaid leave and reduced hours who have returned or increased their hours to support essential services.
Local recruitment campaigns are ongoing and we have been holding weekly interviews for staff nurses and midwives since early March 2020. We are offering positions to successful candidates on a weekly basis. All current student nurses and midwives graduating from University of Limerick have been offered permanent contracts. We are also recruiting up to 150 nurses from overseas to commence on a phased basis from December 2020. As of the end of July 2020, we had recruited over 130 staff nurses in the year-to-date with an additional 16 staff returning from retirement or career breaks.
We are committed to consultation and engagement with trade unions on the much needed service developments and additional bed capacity under construction at UHL and at Croom Orthopaedic Hospital. We remain focused on increasing our staffing levels both to better meet the challenges of Covid-19 and to staff the new wards. A number of consultative forums are in place for the unions to address any issues as they arise. These forums provide for regular engagement between unions and management. The next such forum meeting is scheduled for Friday, September 4th under the auspices of the WRC Advisory Service.
The public health emergency remains challenging for all staff and various supports, including counselling, are in place for our staff.
We remain committed to good industrial relations and continue to be available to meet with the unions. However, we are disappointed that this ballot for industrial action comes at a time when cases of Covid-19 continue to rise in the MidWest and across the country and the pandemic is far from over.
