Patient held nurses at knifepoint

NURSES at Waterford Regional Hospital are meeting with management over the next few days in a bid to improve security after staff were held at knifepoint by a patient in the A&E ward their last July.

The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) will meet with management at to discuss how security at the 500-bed unit might be improved. Industrial relations officer Tony Fitzpatrick said such incidents can not be allowed to re-occur. “The three staff involved in this attack need all the back-up and support they need. And the Health Board has to ensure that something like this never happens again,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.

No one was injured in the incident.

He said that nurses and other staff needed urgent training in break-away techniques, helping them to defend themselves against patients who want to harm them.

On the night the incident took place, the nurses did manage to press the panic button at the accident and emergency department. But it was not linked into the security staff on duty on the night.

Meanwhile, the South Eastern Health Board has said that it has been instructed not to fill 60 posts because of cut-backs announced by the Department of Health.

Details of the expenditure cuts will be finalised and will be revealed to board members by acting chief executive of the board, John Magnier, at the September meeting of the body.