Nurses working in Emergency Departments (EDs) are to go ahead with strike action next week, it has been confirmed.

The nurses, all members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), have rejected proposals by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) that aimed to address overcrowding, staffing and patient safety issues.

Some 58% of members voted against the proposals, while 42% voted in favour.

The INMO's Executive Council has sanctioned the first day of strike action for Thursday, January 14, ‘with subsequent days of action following later'.

The council noted that feedback it has received from members reveals that they have ‘no confidence in local management to deliver on a 24/7 basis the required changes to improve the environment for both patients and staff in EDs'.

It pointed out that in recent days, more than 550 patients were left on trolleys in EDs nationwide, and members feel that senior management had not prepared for ‘the inevitable surge in the early days of the New Year'.

"It is quite clear that in rejecting these proposals, our members were stating that they had no confidence in senior management at local level to implement the proposed measures on a continuous basis.

"It was also obvious that members believe that there is a complete lack of awareness within senior management as to the compromising of patient care and safe nursing practice occurring on a daily basis from the continuous presence of trolleys and overcrowding generally," commented INMO general secretary, Liam Doran.

The strike action planned for January 14 will affect seven hospitals.

Meanwhile, Beaumont Hospital in Dublin is appealing to members of the public not to attend its ED due to the increasing number of patients on trolleys there. It said that it regretted the difficult conditions patients are experiencing in the department.

According to the INMO's Trolley Watch figures, Beaumont is one of the worst affected hospitals with consistently high numbers of patients left waiting on trolleys. On Tuesday morning (January 5), around 50 patients were on trolleys.