Patient transfer halted by action

UP TO 100 psychiatric patients face a dreary Christmas in bleak wards after their transfer to a more suitable hospital yesterday was halted by industrial action.

A new acute psychiatric ward with room for 45 patients was to open at St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny yesterday, but a row over staff pay, protocol and procedures has halted the transfer of patients to the multi-million euro facility.

It is the latest pay and conditions row to halt the transfer of patients to more suitable facilities. In Limerick, 38 elderly psychiatric patients cannot be transferred from St Joseph’s Psychiatric Unit, formerly a 19th century workhouse, to a new centre at Villa Maria in Parteen in the city.