INO slams Taoiseach for playing down A&E crisis
The Irish Nurses Organisation has slammed attempts by the Taoiseach to play down the seriousness of the overcrowding crisis in accident and emergency departments.
The organisation said this morning that Bertie Ahern had been ill-advised if he believed the problem was only confined to five or six hospitals.
The INO is currently engaged in a series of half-hour lunchtime protests at selected hospitals throughout the State to highlight nurses' anger at overcrowding and the Government's failure to tackle it.
The protests are taking place every Tuesday and Thursday this month and today's demonstrations have been arranged for Loughlinstown and Blanchardstown hospitals in Dublin.
Meanwhile, a lobby group set up to campaign for improvements in A&E standards has said the €55 daily charge for hospital treatment should be waived for the duration of time that patients spend on trolleys.
Patients Together has said it is wrong to charge people waiting on trolleys or in chairs in A&E units for days before they can be admitted to a proper hospital bed.
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