Nurses threatened strike action at University Hospital Galway (UHG) over safety fears around staffing of the new temporary Emergency Department, the Connacht Tribune has learned.

INMO (Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation) warned management at UHG that they would ballot for industrial action, up to and including withdrawal of labour, if their safety concerns were not met.

Correspondence released to this newspaper following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, reveals how relations between management and nurses soured in September as the HSE planned to push ahead with the opening of the new temporary ED, without agreement.

Emails released under FOI also reveal that a breakdown in trust between management and nurses threatened to delay further the opening of the new temporary ED.

Last July, a HSE West Regional Health Forum meeting was told by CEO of Saolta University Healthcare Group, Tony Canavan that the temporary ED would be open in September.

The new temporary ED, he said, would have capacity for 43 beds, nine more than the previous ED which was declared ‘not fit for purpose’.

But nurses resisted the move to the new temporary ED until their demands that it would be sufficiently staffed were met. INMO wanted more staff and an appropriate mix of experienced staff in the new temporary ED.

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