INO claims protesting nurses facing intimidation
Nurses have faced intimidation from some hospital bosses over their protests to highlight the state of accident and emergency awards, it was claimed today.
The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said it had written to Kevin Kelly, acting chief executive officer of the Health Service Executive (HSE), to lodge a formal complaint over the alleged incidents over the past few days.
Liam Doran, general secretary of the INO, said certain hospital managements had sought to intimidate nursing staff into not giving media interviews or participating in the hospital lunchtime protests on overcrowding in A&E wards.
Mr Doran said: “This is old-fashioned intimidation where hospital managements remain more anxious to avoid local embarrassment rather than admit, openly and honestly, the scale of the problem.”
The INO said it had called upon the HSE to inform all hospitals that elected representatives of any staff group should be allowed to speak out, providing they are not talking about individual patients.
Mr Doran added: “The INO will not have its representatives silenced when they are simply speaking up for the protection of patients, the maintenance of standards and the right for everyone to have a quality-assured health service.”
The INO said it was aware of incidents when certain hospital managers had advised staff in “subtle ways” that the hospital or the staff members’ best interests would not be best served by highlighting the situation or holding the protests.
Mr Doran claimed the problem was at particular Dublin hospitals, and alleged that some managements were attempting to stop the staff identifying the particular medical facility.
The INO said in the letter to Mr Kelly it had pointed out that consultant staff were free to give interviews, and identify their workplace. Mr Doran claimed the INO had previously experienced similar difficulties and wrote to the health service management last July.
Nurses are due today to continue their lunchtime protests, which have taken place at different facilities across the country.
The new protests will take place outside another two hospitals, St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin and Limerick Regional Hospital, to highlight the overcrowding in A&E wards.
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