LAST UPDATE | 9 hrs ago
NURSES AND MIDWIVES will today cast ballots on industrial action as their union says “large gaps” in the workforce are impacting the safety of the job.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said its members have shared examples where short staffing has resulted in “very high-risk situations” for its members while they are at work.
The union claims positions in cancer, palliative, paediatric, and rehab care are being left vacant, and that this is ramping up pressure on staff to work on days off and stay on for unpaid periods after their shift.
“The HSE have designed a laborious, time-wasting process of application for safety-critical posts under the Pay and Numbers Strategy, which is designed to prolong the recruitment process.
“We are now seeing instances where it is taking up to twelve months to recruit much-needed nurses and midwives into vacant posts.
“This has had a hugely negative …