Nursing disputes leave patients in limbo
A new acute psychiatric ward with room for 45 patients was to open at St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny before Christmas, but it remains closed.
Meanwhile, a new unit for 38 elderly psychiatric patients in Limerick also remains shut because of a row over pay, protocol and procedures.
Nurses in Carlow have already voted in favour of the transfer of patients in their care in the town to the new Kilkenny unit at St Luke’s Hospital. And the results of a ballot among the Kilkenny staff at the older unit in the city is expected on Friday.
If the Kilkenny nurses back the transfer, the unit may open later this month, said health board chief executive Pat McLoughlin.
The transfer of elderly psychiatric patients in Limerick from St Joseph’s Psychiatric Unit to a new centre at Villa Maria in Parteen in the city, is likely to take longer.
Labour Relations Commission talks on that dispute have again been deferred. They were to begin on Friday but have been put back. Nurses in Limerick declined a €4,000 relocation allowance which would clear the way for the transfer.
Villa Maria, a former nursing home, was purchased by the Mid-Western Health Board two years ago at a cost of €2.5m.
Psychiatric Nurses Association general secretary, Des Kavanagh said it was wrong to assume that nurses alone have halted the transfer plans in both locations.
Nursing negotiations in Kilkenny and Carlow are complete, he said, and the result of the ballot of staff in Kilkenny will be known later this week. “A procedures and policy document on how patients should be managed is still being worked on.
“That document is with the consultant psychiatrist and we understand it has not yet been signed off. Recent media reports which suggest this row is about pay are wrong,” he said.
“Money and other matters have been resolved. It is now just a question of procedures being agreed.”
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