"Saddest day in nursing history" as 27,500 strike

More than 27,000 nurses went on strike today, in what has been described as the darkest day in the history of the profession. Pickets were put in place at more than a thousand locations around the country, while health service employers have called the management of emergency services "a logistical nightmare." Reports suggest that the contingency measures have been working as well as could be expected, as nursing cover has been reduced to emergency levels.

Hospitals in Dublin are relying on a skeleton nursing staff in many areas, although in critical care a nearly full staff is on duty. Today, in the Eye and Ear Hospital in Dublin nurses called off the picket to deal with two emergencies.

In a statement, the Southern Health Board, which covers Cork and Kerry, said that all non-emergency admissions, day-care services and community nursing services have been cancelled. At the biggest hospital in the region, Cork University Hospital, 90 of the 550 beds have been closed, while the number of nurses on duty has been reduced to 70, just over a quarter of the normal number. At Tralee General Hospital, 64 of the hospital's 324 beds have been closed and between 85 and 100 elective procedures have been cancelled. Nursing numbers on duty are also down from 140 to 55.

Only a handful of nurses turned up for work at three of the Midlands acute General Hospitals. 69 nurses normally work daily at the Longford-Westmeath General Hospital in Mullingar, today only 24 turned up for work. Strike cover at Portlaoise General means that 12 nurses out of a staff of 40 are at work, while just 17 nurses out of a normal staff roster of 87 are on duty in Tullamore General Hospital.

The INO says that the 550 nurses at Waterford Regional are on strike the same as their colleagues across the southeast. But they say that they are unable to place pickets because their care assistant colleagues are on the picket line at the moment, and the nurses need to be close at hand in order to respond to any emergency. In the southeast, just over a quarter of the 2,450 nurses normally on duty around the region started work this morning. The South Eastern Health Board has issued a list of services being curtailed due to the nurses strike and has appealed to the public not to attend hospitals unless absolutely necessary.

In the northwest, all elective surgery and the vast majority of outpatient clinics have been cancelled at the regions two acute hospitals in Sligo and Letterkenny. Accident and emergency services are also curtailed. On a normal Tuesday, 181 nurses would be on duty at Sligo General, today there are just 38, In Letterkenny 26 are working compared to the normal contingent of 120. The cutbacks are not as severe in district hospitals, the main impact will be felt in the two main centres where between them, on an average week, about 1,600 outpatients are treated.

Staff at the five acute hospitals in the Midwest, the Regional Hospital and the Regional Maternity in Limerick City, Croom Orthopaedic, and the General hospitals at Ennis and Nenagh, have been severely curtailed. Staff at the 360 bed Regional Hospital would normally be 206, this has been reduced to 49. At the 99 bed Regional Maternity normally 33 staff are on duty, this has been reduced to 20, but the neo natal sick baby unit will be fully staffed. All public health and community nursing services have been cancelled, but health centres will be open for other services like social work and psychological services.

Twenty-one strike committees have been established in the Midwest by the nursing unions to liase on a daily basis about cover. Health Board managers from each county will be meeting every morning to see where problems are arising and formulate a response. An area of particular worry is that of care for those with mental handicap. The Brothers of Charity centre at Bawnmore in Limerick which is a residential home to 141, has had to send 50 of its clients home, which is going to put severe strain on parents and families of those with mental handicap. Day services for another 40 have also been cancelled.

At University College Hospital in Galway, 300 nurses walked out of the building at exactly 8am this morning and placed a picket at the entrance to the hospital. A spokesman for SIPTU said that about 70 nurses were remaining in the hospital to provide emergency cover. The Nursing Alliance spokesperson for the West, Helen Murphy, described it as the "saddest day in nursing history", but she insisted that all patients in the Western region, where 2,600 nurses are on strike today, would be looked after.

Meanwhile, the organisation representing retired nurses has said they want to be considered as part as any settlement the nurses make with the Government. Speaking in Clonmel this afternoon, Sean O'Callaghan, president of the Retired Nurses Association of Ireland said they have an interest in the outcome of the pay award, as they say their schemes should go up accordingly. Mr O'Callaghan said he expects any increases won by the nurses to be passed-on to the retired nurses. Retired nurses have been joining nurses on picket lines across the country throughout the day.