Plans for €15m psychiatric unit back on track

Plans to open a new €15m psychiatric unit at Cork University Hospital are back on track following a breakthrough in talks designed to address concerns over staffing and health and safety issues.

The state-of-the-art acute unit was due to open last month but unions representing workers objected, primarily on the grounds of inadequate staffing. The Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) said some of its concerns date to August 2013.

However, the 50-bed unit is now expected to open on March 11 after progress was made in conciliation talks held this week under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission.

Des Kavanagh, general secretary of the PNA, said HSE management had agreed to five additional nursing posts for the unit, raising the total number from 51 to 56.

He said the HSE had also given clarification in relation to concerns about access to security staff at the new facility, which is at a remove from the main hospital. The new unit will now have its own dedicated security staff.

Mr Kavanagh said the HSE had also clarified issues around transporting patients from the main hospital to the unit and vice versa. The unions had been concerned nurses would be required to leave the unit to assist such transfers. However, a portering service will provide this function.

Concerns around the evacuation of elderly patients with dementia from the first floor in the event of fire had also been allayed, Mr Kavanagh said.

While there were a number of outstanding clinical issues such as access to a crash team in the event of cardiac arrest, Mr Kavanagh said he believed they could be ironed out locally. The PNA plans to put the conciliation proposals to members next week with a recommendation that they accept.

Local PNA representative Mary Walsh said they were “very disappointed the process has taken so long to resolve given our primary concern has always been for the safety of patients and staff”.

There has also been a breakthrough in a separate nursing dispute at the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar following a vote by nurses to work to rule. According to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), 90 extra nursing and midwifery posts have been secured following negotiations with management.

Initial interviews for the posts are due to take place on February 23. Derek Reilly of INMO said it was “a positive outcome for our members who have continued to struggle with unmanageable workloads on a daily basis due to persistent overcrowding and understaffing”.

There were 20 patients on trolleys at the hospital yesterday between the emergency department and wards. Nationally, the figure was 557.