Minister declares under-pressure psychaitric unit ‘safe’ after watchdog called

The Government has defended the standard of care in Galway’s main psychiatric unit after the country’s work safety watchdog was called in over complaints about staffing levels.

It has emerged that last week, a patient absconded from the psychiatric unit in University Hospital Galway and later died by suicide.

It is understood another patient also absconded from the unit and was located and returned to the hospitals only after nurses spent hours searching the city.

Fianna Fáil’s spokesman on mental health, Colm Keaveney, said staff in the unit were “unable to cope” with the high number of patients, which he claimed was directly attributable to the closure on April 1 last of St Brigid’s Psychiatric Unit in Ballinasloe.

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) confirmed it has been drafted in to examine staffing levels at the unit.

Yesterday, Kathleen Lynch, the minister with responsibility for mental health, said she believed services at the unit were being delivered safely and denied there had been overcrowding.

In a statement, she said the HSE had acknowledged the death of a service user last week, and this has been reported to the Mental Health Commission. She said an internal review is also under way.

Ms Lynch said bed capacity in the unit had increased from 42 to 45 and added: “There is no pressure on physical bed occupancy at the present time.

“Staff in the acute unit at University Hospital Galway are confident that they can meet the needs of current inpatients, and are also able to meet the needs of those referred for assessments.”

Des Kavanagh, the general secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA), said staff concerns were passed to the Health Information and Quality Authority last week.

It is understood the situation in the unit has been exacerbated by high levels of sick leave — it is believed that a number of staff were out on one day last week, understood to be stress-related.

A letter from staff, released by Mr Keaveney, referred to “ongoing, dangerously low staffing levels,” at a time when five high-risk patients required 15-minute monitoring and the “unacceptable high level of stress” among staff.

The letter also contained claims of “serious incidents of staff assaults” and morale being at “an all-time low”, with apparently no agreement on minimum staffing levels or risk assessments.