Shorter working hours and the continuing trolley crisis in emergency departments top the agenda for the annual conference of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, which opens today.
The union is seeking a return to a 37½-hour working week, several years after nurses agreed to work an extra 90 minutes a week under cost-cutting measures agreed with the Government as part of the Haddington Road agreement. In line with other public sector unions, it also wants a significant first step towards the restoration of pay cuts.
It says the latest trolley figures, which a 26 per cent rise in the number of patients waiting for admission to hospital last month compared to the previous April, are very worrying. Of particular concern is a sharp increase in trolley numbers in hospitals outside Dublin - up from 12 to 806 between April 2014 and April 2015.
Today's figures show there are 465 patients on trolleys or on wards today waiting for admission to a bed. Beaumont Hospital has the largest number with 47 patients waiting, followed by 41 at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda and 39 at the Mater in Dublin.
The Government has provided an additional €74 million to implement the recommendations of the emergency department task force report, but the INMO says this will not be enough to solve the problem.
General secretary Liam Doran, who co-chaired the task force, described the extra funding was welcome but said much more was needed.
Minister for Health Leo Varadkar is due to address the meeting on Friday.