Doctors snub nurses' strike rescue deal

ANGRY doctors threw the government's hospital peace deal with nurses into chaos yesterday by refusing to work with it.

The deal announced on Friday ended the nurses work-to-rule in A&E departments.

But following yesterday's emergency meeting of the National Council of the Irish Hospital Consultants Association the agreement is now in danger of collapse.

According to the IHCA the solution to the A&E crisis is in the provision of more beds and not the cancellation of admissions to ease pressure on emergency units.

Donal Duffy, IHCA Assistant Secretary General, said: "Because they have the training and experience consultants are the only staff with the capacity to determine which patients can be admitted through an emergency department and which patients can be discharged.

"The problems in A&E arises because of a lack of sufficient beds in our hospitals. We do acknowledge the work of Health Minister Micheal Martin in securing extra beds for the first time in over 10 years."

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) and SIPTU decided on Friday to suspend their work-to-rule in A&E departments for five weeks to allow new arrangements on admission and discharge to be implemented.

Mr Duffy added: "The agreement will give us high speed medicine as opposed to high quality medicine and is therefore something we could not endorse."

Hundreds of nurses brought casualty units to a standstill 10 days ago in a strike over bed shortages and overcrowding.

Non-emergency patients were forced to go to their GPs as 800 nurses picketed 40 hospitals in a two-hour stoppage.

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