The nurses’ union, the INMO, and other health unions are balloting over the staff shortages in our hospitals.
The reason is that many nursing posts in cancer, palliative, paediatric, and rehab care are being left vacant.
This in turn is leading to increasing demands from HSE management on staff to work on days off, stay on for significant unpaid periods after a rostered shift ends, and deal with increasing levels of frustration from the public who are waiting longer for services.
The HSE has 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. It is taking up to twelve months to recruit much-needed nurses and midwives into vacant posts.
People Before Profit fully support them in this action.