Nurses and midwives will hold a lunchtime protest today over what the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) says are unsafe staffing levels at Limerick’s maternity hospital. The INMO said “the root of this crisis lies in the HSE’s pay and numbers strategy, introduced in 2023 to 2024″, which cut about 30 to 35 frontline posts at the University Maternity Hospital Limerick (UMHL) and imposed “new staff ceilings, recruitment limits and pay spend caps”. The union said the impact had been “catastrophic for a hospital already under significant pressure”.It said many areas of the hospital were running on rosters 50 per cent below safe levels.“The neonatal unit is beyond safe capacity while awaiting HSE approval for service expansion and the labour ward has daily deficits of midwives on duty,” it said in a statement.The INMO also accused the HSE of further breaching an agreement reached in the hospital in 2015 at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) regarding minimum midwife and nurse staffing levels.It said all concerns were raised repeatedly with management last year and an inspection by the Health Information and Quality Authority independently confirmed the situation was not sustainable.“Our members are now carrying insurmountable workloads to try to maintain safe clinical care for all mothers and babies,” the INMO said.It also said a recent offer of 10 additional posts would have no significant impact.“Nurses and midwives at the hospital are working in extremely unsafe conditions, they are not just concerned for their own safety but that of mothers and babies.” INMO assistant director of industrial relations for the midwest Mary Fogarty said that at 1pm “our members will protest at the failures of the HSE” to uphold the agreement on staffing brokered by the INMO and local management at the WRC in 2015 and to provide funding for more staff in the neonatal unit and “allowing this unit to run at overcapacity, which caused the loss of approximately 35 nursing and midwifery posts”.Fogarty said members would also protest against what it said were the HSE’s “failures” to ensure safe staffing levels in the hospital and to protect the hospital from the HSE Pay and Numbers strategy.The INMO said the protest would not disrupt services at the hospital.In a statement, the HSE said UMHL was “mandated to comply with the national Pay and Numbers Strategy, which governs staffing levels and workforce planning across all health services”.“The hospital has staffing resources in place, including built in leave tolerance, in line with the WRC agreement. “It is important to clarify that the INMO does not recognise the closure of beds that has occurred since the WRC agreement was established and continues to reference an agreement from 2015 that no longer reflects the current operational structure of the service.”In response to this, Fogarty said, on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, that the INMO did recognise the hospital had closed beds “and that brings us more concerns because it puts greater pressure on the remaining beds there to support women who come into the hospital”.The HSE said it remained focused on “maintaining safe, high-quality care”. A total of 30 posts are being advanced through recruitment, interview and clearance processes across maternity and neonatal services, the HSE said in a statement, adding that workforce requirements were kept under continuous review “to ensure services met the needs of women, babies and families who rely on our care".Fogarty said: “For the HSE to come out this morning and say they’re going to fill 30 posts – that has never been relayed to the INMO. They have articulated they would employ their graduate midwives when they come out next October when they register, but at this point in time the hospital is in a crisis and needs assistance.”The HSE said, regarding the proposed expansion of the neonatal unit, it was important to distinguish between current service provision and future development. Any expansion would be considered as part of the national service plan for 2027, it said. “Our priority remains the delivery of safe, high‑quality care while planning appropriately for future service growth."However, Fogarty warned that a shortage of staff meant it was not possible to provide “acceptable standards” to care for babies in UMHL’s neonatal unit. “The maternity hospital in Limerick is open and funded for 19 babies, 19 cots. However, for example in the month of May of this year, 50 shifts within that unit were not filled so they could not provide the acceptable clinical standards for care to those babies,” she said.“The unit as well is always over capacity so it often runs 22 to 23 babies in there and we must remember that these are the smallest, most preterm babies and their chances of survival are directly related to having adequate nurse staffing levels in a neonatal unit.”“The hospital has eight beds closed. It has been unable to recruit because of a recruitment cap and a funding cap to fill those midwifery and nursing posts at the hospital. “We’ve engaged with the HSE since last October on these issues and to be honest with you they appear to not understand the crisis that’s there and it’s really come to a head now,” she said on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.