On March 10th 2025 the public service union FÓRSA and the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) served three weeks notice for industrial action on the HSE and Section 38 Hospitals. This is in response to a decision by the CEO of the HSE Bernard Gloster to decommission thousands of vacant posts, which means many necessary positions are being left unfilled with current staff expected, in the words of FÓRSA, ‘to cover the work of 2,3,4 or more people to keep the health service running’.
Healthcare staff have highlighted for years the chronic staff shortages affecting the safe delivery of care for patients in hospitals and the community, but have been ignored by senior management and Ministers for Health who appear to have no inkling of the conditions those on the front lines have to face. In the six years since nurses and midwives went on strike to highlight these same conditions, the situation has worsened.
Gloster’s response to the notice of industrial action has been predictable. According to RTE News he said the planned industrial action was ‘regrettable against the background of additional funding for the health service’. Which is puzzling because just last week in one of his many Trump-like directives, Gloster ordered staff to send fewer letters and use public transport where possible for essential travel in order to save on postal and travel costs.
Unlike RTE, the HSE cannot look forward to a government bailout. Instead, staff and patients can expect more cutbacks and further deterioration of services when what we really need is a National Health Service operating under democratic workers’ control, and free at the point of use for everyone.
Militant Left offers solidarity and stands firmly with members of FÓRSA and the INMO in their struggle to ensure safe staffing levels for patients.