Industrial action in University Hospital Limerick's (UHL) intensive care unit has been suspended following a proposal agreed between the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and UHL.
Last week, nurses in the unit began industrial action in the form of a work-to-rule, as part of a dispute over understaffing in the hospital's intensive care unit (ICU).
"The work-to-rule in the ICU in University Hospital Limerick has been suspended to allow a ballot to take place on an agreement reached between the INMO and hospital management through the auspices of the Workplace Relations Commission," said INMO Assistant Director of Relations Mary Fogarty.
"The agreement reached is a temporary one to address the staffing shortfalls that is impacting both patient and staff safety in the ICU," Ms Fogarty said.
Measures included in the agreement include a commitment to ensure that at least 16 nurses will be rostered in for both day and night duty for the 12-bed ward, nurses who work in the ICU will be facilitated to take their annual leave and assurances have been made that additional ICU nurses will be on site in June and July to bolster the current staffing complement.
"Safe staffing in the ICU is of utmost importance to our members who have been under intolerable pressure while trying to provide excellent care to very sick patients," Ms Fogarty said.
The UL Hospital Group said it welcomed what it described a "significant step forward" in resolving the dispute.
"We continue to make progress on the substantive issue of recruitment," the group said in a statement.
"We expect a significant number of new nursing staff will take up posts in our ICU before the end of the third quarter of this year," it added.
