UHL ICU nurses’ industrial action suspended

Industrial action in University Hospital Limerick’s Intensive Care Unit has been suspended following a proposal agreed between the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and UHL.
 
INMO Assistant Director of Relations Mary Fogarty said:

The work-to-rule in the Intensive Care Unit in University Hospital Limerick has been suspended to allow a ballot to take place on an agreement reached between the INMO and hospital management through the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission. 
 
The agreement reached is a temporary one to address the staffing shortfalls that is impacting both patient and staff safety in the ICU. Measures included in the agreement include a commitment to ensure that at least sixteen nurses will be rostered in for both day and night duty for the twelve bed ward, nurses who work in the ICU will be facilitated to take their annual leave and assurances have been made that additional ICU nurses will be on site in June and July to bolster the current staffing complement. 
 
Safe staffing in the ICU is of utmost importance to our members who have been under intolerable pressure while trying to provide excellent care to very sick patients.