THE Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has called on Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to reconsider his decision not to meet with its elected representatives in University Hospital Limerick today.
This comes as Minister Donnelly failed to respond to a request from the INMO to meet with officials during a scheduled visit to the Dooradoyle campus today.
INMO Assistant Director of Industrial Relations, Mary Fogarty said they welcomed the fact that Minister Donnelly was in University Hospital Limerick today seeing the situation in the hospital, first hand.
“There are 72 are on trolleys this morning. We have seen huge numbers of patients on trolleys in UHL this year, with 2,264 patients on trolleys since the beginning of 2022.
“The INMO has been sounding the alarm on the situation in University Hospital Limerick, for many years but since capacity increase, it has not improved.
“Last July, the union requested that the Minister for Health carry out an independent inquiry into patient management at University Hospital Limerick.
“We sought to meet with the Minister as part of his visit to the hospital today. We are disappointed that he hasn’t responded to this request but remain available with elected representatives of the INMO today to discuss their concerns and experiences in Ireland’s most overcrowded hospital.
“Representatives from the union are willing and available to meet the Minister at any time.
“The spiralling situation in University Hospital Limerick has been well flagged both locally and nationally by the INMO. The staff in the hospital have had to deal with record overcrowding in the hospital coupled with dealing with Covid-19.
“This is simply dangerous and very unacceptable as a standard for INMO members trying to provide decent safe care but finding it impossible in the conditions they are forced to work in.
“We would ask that the Minister reconsider his decision to not meet with elected INMO representatives today,” Ms Fogarty concluded.
