Over 3,500 nurses are out of work due to Covid-19 – and the INMO says its members can’t provide a safe service.
The executive council of the country’s leading nursing union will hold an emergency meeting today.
It comes as Covid hospitalisations are at record levels, with 1,151 people in hospital with the virus this morning, a record for the third day in a row.
28 of those are in St Luke’s, the general hospital for Carlow and Kilkenny- where there are 5 patients with the virus in critical care.
The union’s general secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, says immediate action is needed to deal with the crisis;
“We need to see evidence of a vast recruitment campaign, we need to see retired healthcare workers being welcomed back. We need to see every possible measure to increase the workforce being introduced. We don’t have evidence of that, all we’ve seen to date is annual leave being cancelled. It’s seriously falling on the same group of people all the time, and that’s just not safe.”
