Psychiatrists back nurses’ concerns over unopened unit

Psychiatrists at Cork University Hospital have rowed in behind nurses in a row with management over health and safety issues at a new €15m acute psychiatric unit that should have opened last January.

The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), which represents the majority of the nine consultants involved, said its members hadn’t been consulted collectively in relation to the new unit.

Steve Tweed, industrial relations director at the IMO, said in common with nursing staff, their members had concerns in relation to proposed staffing levels; layout of the unit; and the fact that a six-bed high observation unit originally planned as part of the new facility, had been shelved, at least in the short-term.