'We can't take it anymore. Enough is enough': Longford nurses join industrial strike action

The country may have been freezing over last Wednesday morning but no snow could cool the firy passion of 35,000 nurses and midwives across the country as they mounted picket lines outside hospitals for a national strike.

The industrial action kicked off at 8am last Wednesday morning and lasted for 24 hours, with a second strike taking place yesterday (Tuesday), February 5.

The National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP) is also calling on the Government to reverse cuts that were introduced during the recession, as hundreds of GPs march on the Dáil today (Wednesday), leaving many practices across the country closed for the day.

And the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said that further strikes will take place tomorrow (Thursday February 7), and also on February 12, 13 and 14 if no agreement is made.

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Nursing unions are seeking pay parity with allied healthcare professionals but, according to INMO Industrial Relations Officer for the Midlands Dean Flanagan, pay isn't the be all and end all of the industrial strike action.

“It's a case of nurses and midwives not having any other choice,” he explained to the Leader last Wednesday morning as nurses and midwives gathered with placards outside the gates of St Joseph's Hospital in Longford town.

“There's no clear message coming from the government. Pay is only a small bit of the strike action but nurses are the lowest paid degree graduates.

"We've had great support from abroad in Australia and Canada and England. There's a lack of respect coming from the government and comments about threatening jobs in the economy due to Brexit are not helping.”

The two things it all boils down to, Mr Flanagan added, are recruitment and retention of nurses, and equality with allied healthcare professionals.

Strike committees were active since the crack of dawn last Wednesday morning preparing for the national strike action and nurses all over the country were blown away by the support of the public - many of whom had to accept cancelled appointments because of the strike.

“Even the patients understand why this is being done, because they're seeing what's going on day in, day out,” said Mr Flanagan.

"There is no section within the HSE that is immune to the mass exodus from this country. We need to provide for who is going to care for the future. We need those people in the future to look after the most vulnerable in our society and that is why we're striking today."

Those sentiments were echoed last Friday when the Leader spoke to Longford woman Clíodhna Beirne, who is a nurse based in a Dublin hospital.

Clíodhna and fellow Dublin-based Longford nurse Lisa Donaghy were part of a larger strike in the capital last Wednesday morning.

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“We’re not just doing this for nurses now. We’re doing this for the next generations,” Ms Beirne explained.

“Everyone at some point is going to come into contact with the health service. Everyone is going to need nurses. And yet our junior nurses are leaving. And our nurses abroad are looking for reasons to come home.

“None of us wanted to go on strike. None of us wanted to leave our patients and our colleagues behind and go on the picket line. But we can’t take it anymore. Enough is enough. And this is only our second time to strike in a hundred years which just goes to show you how serious we are.”

Last year was the worst year for overcrowding in hospitals, Ms Beirne explained, and there has been a lot of negative media coverage about cancelled appointments.

But, she added, appointments are being cancelled every day of the week anyway because hospitals simply don't have the staff to deal with the demand.

“We’re exhausted. We’re so anxious going in. We’re stressed. We’re getting verbal abuse every day. The staff just aren’t there. It’s not safe anymore. Every day we’re seeing one of us breaking down in tears. We can’t do our jobs right,” she said.

“Irish nurses are brilliantly trained and we’re just training them to leave. We love our jobs. It’s a fantastically rewarding profession and it’s a very academic career. But it’s just not feasible to stay in it.

“We’re not just doing this for us. We’re doing it for our patients. When patients are vulnerable, we’re there. We could have eight patients and one of them is dying but seven others need us. And we have to help the family that’s coming in to see their dying relative while also looking after the needs of our other patients.

“We’re not getting a lunch break most days, or a toilet break even. And if we do end up with an adequately-staffed ward, we get pulled out to A&E or another ward that isn’t adequately staffed.

“We love our jobs. This is a fantastic profession if you get to do it right. And I would never tell anyone not to become a nurse. We’re out here for the next generation coming. I hope whoever comes behind me has it better. We’re hoping there’ll be a resolution before the next strike days.”

The next strike action is due to take place tomorrow, Thursday February 7, if an agreement is not made in the meantime.

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