Nurses to protest working conditions at Connolly hospital today

According to INMO, nurses at the hospital are facing "increased pressure" and "unsafe conditions".

Nurses at Dublin's Connolly Hospital  are set to protest this afternoon, The Irish Times reports. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said that their members will highlight "excessive workloads" and "increasingly unsafe conditions". In a statement, the group said that nurses are under "increased pressure" and that patient care is being "compromised". They are hoping that today's demonstration will send a clear message to management about their concerns. The protest will take place at the entrance to the hospital at 1pm this afternoon. INMO's statement reads: "The INMO have engaged with hospital management to find a resolution to this ongoing issue and are not satisfied with the response to the safety concerns raised. "INMO members are calling on hospital management to restrict services, close beds and wards and divert scheduled care to private hospitals. This action needs to be taken to protect standards of care, patients, and staff. While a recent recruitment initiative has had some success many of the new recruits will not start until 2022." The group's Industrial Relations Officer Maurice Sheehan said: "Our members have been through a very challenging time and are heading into winter with an increased workload, and COVID still circulating. "Hospital management need to act urgently to keep staff and patients safe. Otherwise, services at the hospital will need to be scaled back to ensure safety for all. “From the outset of the pandemic, management at Connolly Hospital chose to curtail some of their least essential services, they need to do so again." Sheehan said that today's protest will send a "clear message" to management that its staff are "not willing to continue providing care in a manner where the health and safety of patients and staff is at risk".