Porters told they must watch at-risk psychiatric patients

HOSPITAL porters in Cork say they will continue to watch psychiatric patients at risk of harming themselves and other patients or staff with “great reluctance”.

Thirty porters at South Infirmary-Victoria University Hospital in Cork, had argued in the Labour Court that using them to observe patients was putting patients and staff at risk because they were not qualified to do the job, known as “specialising”.

SIPTU branch secretary Joe O’Callaghan said the porters believed that nurses or paramedics were more suitably qualified to observe at-risk psychiatric patients.