Nurses at University Hospital Limerick are again appealing to the Government and the HSE to address their ongoing concerns over patient safety.

According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), it is more than two years since nurses in the hospital took industrial action over the issue of patient safety.

However on Friday morning (February 7), the hospital was in ‘utter chaos, with 36 patients on trolleys in the emergency department (ED), and beds closed because there are no nurses available to the hospital'.

The INMO insisted that it has ‘repeatedly engaged' with local management in the last few weeks and months, in order to express its concerns about the ‘chaotic environment' staff are expected to work in.

It also pointed out that this problem has been compounded as a result of a loss of acute beds at Ennis General and Nenagh General.

The organisation insisted that this was putting an ‘impossible strain' on the hospital.

"The INMO calls on the HSE and Government to prioritise the urgent and immediate recruitment of nurses, and for an independent review of the reconfiguration of acute hospital services in the mid-west.

"The current situation is totally unacceptable, cannot be allowed to continue and must be addressed, in the interests of patients, their safety and the overworked staff striving to provide safe care," commented INMO industrial relations officer, Mary Fogarty.