The conditions that many patients endure in the Irish healthcare system are an outrageous injustice.

An eight-month delay in opening a €15m psychiatric unit at Cork University Hospital (CUH) is due to end today with the transfer of nurses and patients to the 50-bed facility.

The delayed opening of a €15m hospital psychiatric unit has moved a step closer after nurses agreed to transfer there in response to staffing commitments from management.

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.