Many health services in hospitals, day centres and community nursing are set to be affected by the planned INMO nurses’ strike this Wednesday, 30th January.
Up to 35,000 nurses and midwives who are members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation will carry out a 24-hour work stoppage this Wednesday in a pay dispute. Contingency plans are in place to ensure lifesaving care and emergency response teams are not compromised on this day.
However, the HSE has advised that a number of services and procedures are cancelled nationally. Patients are due to be contacted directly if their appointments or procedures are being affected.
Services not available on Wednesday, 30th January:
- Local injury units will not operate
- Planned inpatient surgery will be cancelled, except for cancer surgery. Inpatient is when you need to stay in hospital for one night or more.
- Planned day case procedures will be cancelled. Day case is when you are given a hospital bed or a trolley but will not stay overnight.
- All outpatient appointments are cancelled. This includes adult, maternity and paediatric appointments. Outpatient is when you go to hospital for an appointment but don’t stay overnight.
- If a pregnant woman needs urgent assessment due to the cancellation of an appointment, she should go to the emergency admission room
- All day centres operated by the HSE and specified agencies where nurses are employed will close (people affected will be notified)
- All routine community nursing services and health centre clinics where nurses participate will be cancelled
- All day hospitals or outpatient appointments in community nursing hospitals or units will be cancelled
Services that are operating on the day of the strike:
- Emergency departments (adult and children). Please only attend our emergency services if absolutely essential
- Urgent cancer surgery – you will be contacted directly by hospitals about your surgery
- Maternity services (Delivery suites, home births, special care baby units, neonatal)
- Colposcopy services
- Oncology services (chemotherapy and radiotherapy)
- Dialysis
- Planned obstetric procedures (based on clinical need)
- Planned essential services delivered at home
- Residential care of older people and people with intellectual disability in centres operated by the HSE and specified agencies
- Palliative care
- Limited newborn screening will be available
Talks between nurses and the HSE aiming to prevent this week’s strike failed at the Workplace Relations Commission on Friday.
The INMO strike would be the second national strike in the INMO’s hundred-year history. The organisation has called on Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to intervene in the dispute as they continue to prepare for strike action.
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