SIPTU members at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) are to vote on whether to engage in industrial action over the level of overcrowding in the hospital’s emergency department.
The trade union, which represents around 300 staff at UHL, says that the situation is “out of control”, with up to 50 patients waiting on trolleys one day last week.
SIPTU members are to consider action including a work-to-rule and work stoppages of up to eight hours in protest over the level of overcrowding.
The decision to hold the ballot comes after a sharp rise in overcrowding at the Dooradoyle facility this week with 50 people waiting on beds last Sunday, including 26 in the emergency department.
A spokesperson for SIPTU has claimed that management at the hospital have refused to meet them.
However the UL Hospitals Group responded by saying that it engages on a continuous basis with both SIPTU and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organization (INMO) and that they are always available to meet with SIPTU and other trade unions in relation to staffing.
The statement from the Hospitals Group goes on to say that a number of measures have been taken to ease overcrowding including the hiring of additional staff and the provision of 40 additional beds, while a new state-of-the-art emergency department, that will be three times the size of the existing facility, is on course to be opened in 2017.
The statement concluded by saying that the Hospitals Group “regrets that any patient is facing long waits for a bed during this busy period”.
