Almost 90 additional nurses are to be recruited to help deal with overcrowding problems at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has said.

On Tuesday of this week, Drogheda had the highest number of patients waiting on trolleys in the country (40). It also had the highest number of patients on trolleys on Wednesday (33).

At a hearing of the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) on Wednesday, the INMO secured 88 extra nursing posts, as well as 65 more beds, to deal with the ongoing overcrowding at the hospital.

Other initiatives agreed at the LRC included:
-The provision of one additional nurse for every six admitted patients in the Emergency Department (ED)
-24 additional step-down beds in a private provider to come on stream by the end of February, to help deal with patients who are ready to be discharged but have nowhere to go
-Agreement that the practice of caring for patients on trolleys on corridors should cease by October 1 next
-Stress management training to be made available to staff.

The INMO will be putting these proposals to its members and recommending that they accept them.

According to INMO industrial relations officer, Tony Fitzpatrick, this is a ‘positive outcome' for staff who have ‘continued to struggle with unmanageable workloads on a daily basis due to persistent overcrowding and understaffing'.

"The organisation also welcomes the commitment that no patient will have to suffer the indignity of being on a trolley on a corridor by October 1, 2015. We must never see our sick and elderly having to endure these conditions again. Every effort must now be made to bring additional beds on stream as a matter of urgency," he commented.

He added that the INMO is now calling for ‘an aggressive recruitment campaign' to fill the nursing posts immediately.