Over Four dozen people are on trolleys at University Hospital Limerick today, as 70 new nursing posts have been agreed to deal with overcrowding there.
A Clare member of the Health Forum West says the situation is a disgrace and is accusing the HSE of pushing nurses here to the pin of their collar.
While the UL Hospital's group says it welcomes the decision to defer industrial action by the INMO and SIPTU.
Nursing staff across the Midwest were due to begin a work to rule today in protest at overcrowding at Dooradoyle.
However the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, SIPTU, Hospital Management and the HSE reached a deal following talks at the Labour Relations Comission last night.
70 new nurses are to be hired immediately, with the bulk of them to be based in Dooradoyle, while a new ratio of one nurse to 7 admitted on trolleys has also been agreed.
INMO Industrial Relations Officer for the Midwest Mary Fogarty has welcomed the news.
However Ennis area Councillor Ann Norton has branded the situation as a disgrace.
According to the latest trolley watch report from the INMO, 54 patients awaiting treatment at the region's main hospital, including 39 in its accident and emergency department.
That's dispite a recently impose cap of 20 people on trolleys in Dooradoy's A&E – today the facility is the most overcrowded in the country.
HSE West Health Forum Member Cllr Norton says things shouldn't have gone this far:
