The Psychiatric Nurses Association has described as “unique” the action of nurses who voted against transferring to a new €15m acute psychiatric unit despite three in five being offered an incentive to do so.

With plans to open an acute psychiatric unit at Cork University Hospital running five months behind schedule, a senior HSE manager has issued a plea to nursing staff to transfer to the new facility.

A ballot has been deferred on LRC proposals designed to end a row that has kept a new €15m psychiatric unit closed following claims that managers are leaning on staff to vote in favour of the proposals.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association is to ballot members on revised staffing proposals designed to end a row that has delayed the opening of a €15m psychiatric unit at Cork University Hospital (CUH).

The Mental Health Commission has confirmed that it is undertaking an un-announced inspection of a mental health unit in the west of Ireland where a serious sexual assault is alleged to have taken place.

The HSE is bringing in an external assessor to look at proposed staffing levels for a new acute psychiatric unit in Cork that remains closed in a row over nursing numbers.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) is calling for an independent investigation of the management of an acute psychiatric unit in Galway in the wake of 34 assaults on staff in the first three months of the year.

Siptu has called for the appointment of an independent expert to carry out a review of the clinical concerns that have led to a three-month delay in opening a new €15m psychiatric unit at Cork University Hospital (CUH).

The Psychiatric Nurses Association has said it will not take part in talks designed to defuse a row over the opening of a psychiatric facility unless a nurse put off duty for airing his concerns in the media is allowed return to work.

The opening of a €15m acute psychiatric unit is now almost two months behind schedule after staff rejected proposals aimed at securing their agreement to transfer to the new state-of-the-art building.

Plans to open a new €15m psychiatric unit at Cork University Hospital are back on track following a breakthrough in talks designed to address concerns over staffing and health and safety issues.

If there was one over-riding message that HSE honchos wanted media to take from a tour of the new acute psychiatric unit at Cork University Hospital on January 20, it was that all was well.

Groups makes radical call as HSE vows to punish care home abuse

Nine people have been suspended on full pay at the HSE-run Áras Attracta care home in Co Mayo after a Prime Time report showed shocking treatment of residents.

A woman who was fatally stabbed in a Waterford city psychiatric hospital last night has been named as Maria O'Brien, 55.

The HSE was yesterday locked in talks with representatives of psychiatric nurses at the biggest hospital in the West in a bid to avoid industrial action over staff shortages.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association is calling on the Government to recognise the needs of mental health services, particularly at UCHG.

Mental health service reform has "ground to a halt", with three out of five units failing to meet basic staff levels, one in four not having enough beds and half still using controversial patient restraints.

Half of all unexplained deaths in community mental health centres do not undergo adequate investigations into whether system flaws contributed to the tragedies.

The union representing psychiatric nurses has been granted leave by the High Court to challenge the 50% reduction in sick leave entitlement imposed on public servants by a two-year-old Labour Court ruling.

The Government has defended the standard of care in Galway’s main psychiatric unit after the country’s work safety watchdog was called in over complaints about staffing levels.

The Inspectorate for Mental Health Services is carrying out a review after it was revealed that 14 people have died by suicide in the past 18 months while under the care of the HSE in Carlow, Kilkenny, and South Tipperary.

Psychiatric nurses have called for a more comprehensive recording system to identify patients who died by suicide because they did not get the treatment they needed.

A leading medical group has stood by its claim that dozens of people are dying by suicide every year because they cannot access services — insisting officials must open an “urgent” review into the crisis.

The mental health minister, Kathleen Lynch, will not set up an “urgent” review into claims that people are dying by suicide despite seeking medical help, as there is “no evidence” they are sent home by doctors “too early”.

Dozens of people die by suicide every year despite seeking help because they are sent home early from facilities or are turned away by doctors.

The bill to the taxpayer of providing round-the-clock security for one psychiatric patient at one HSE-run unit now tops €2m.

A mentally ill patient with a persistent choking problem was denied access to essential speech and language therapy as the HSE did not have a service for adults in mental health facilities.

One staff nurse in the HSE earned over €144,000 last year, one of four nurses to earn over €140,000.

Nurses are preparing to take a stand this weekend to protest against Government plans to undercut existing pay scales with new graduate placements.

Nursing unions say the HSE initiative to hire 1,000 graduate nurses at 80% of previous salaries is a cheap labour scam.

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Overcrowding at an acute psychiatric unit is forcing staff to locate patients in an activities therapy room during the night.

Modern psychiatric care methods have resulted in patients not being as closely observed as they were in the past, it has emerged.

The HSE spent an average of €43,122 per week last year to accommodate 11 patients in mental health services overseas.

Vulnerable patients are being discharged early or failing to secure a bed due to mental health service cutbacks, leading to suicide in some cases, the Psychiatric Nurses’ Association said yesterday.

Increasing the spend on mental health is one of the calls being made by the Psychiatric Nurses Association at its annual meeting in Athlone today.

Suicide rates are expected to rise when an estimated 400 mental health carers take retirement this month, it has been revealed.

FIVE women who had been living on an open ward at St Brendan’s Hospital in Dublin were yesterday forced into a locked ward for Christmas because of HSE staff cutbacks.

THE Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) has served notice of industrial action on the Health Service Executive because of its failure to properly facilitate the planned closure of mental health services at St Ita’s Hospital.

THE bill to provide 24-hour security for one male patient at the acute psychiatric unit at Ennis General Hospital has exceeded €1 million.

A SERIES of protests against the budget began yesterday with the People’s Movement delivering a briefcase to the Dáil containing suggestions for a more equitable approach to the economic crisis.

Firefighters and paramedics today joined forces with psychiatric nurses to form a new trade union for frontline staff in the public service.

A VIOLENT and disturbed mental health patient has been under 24-hour guard at Ennis General Hospital at a cost of €1,000 a day for more than two years.