HSE clears outspoken nurse for return to work

The HSE has written to a mental health nurse it put off duty for speaking to the media, clearing him for a return to work.

The development occurred after the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) threatened to withdraw from talks designed to resolve a row over the opening of a psychiatric facility on the grounds of Cork University Hospital if Des McSweeney was not allowed to return to work.

Mr McSweeney, a mental health nurse at CUH, said he had been snowed under with support from other nurses after the Irish Examiner reported on Friday that he had been put off duty for his public criticism of the HSE’s new €15m psychiatric facility.