Nurses seek probe into unit management after 34 assaults on staff
The figures came to light at the PNA annual delegate conference in Athlone, which continues today.
PNA general secretary Des Kavanagh said while violence was “not synonymous with mental illness” it “had to be honestly acknowledged that a small number of patients present a threat, and sometimes, a very serious threat”.
Mr Kavanagh said there had also been “quite a few assaults” at the Lakeview Unit in Naas General Hospital.
The impact of assaults ranged from staff being able to return “to work after a cup of tea to people being out on sick leave for weeks”.
He called on the HSE mental-health division to expedite its proposed national safety programme, with particular focus on the Galway unit.
The conference heard that the issue of assault on nurses was being compounded in parts of the country “by the fact that some managers were frustrating the proper implementation of the Serious Physical Assault Scheme”.
Mr Kavanagh said that in some areas, the scheme was implemented immediately following a serious assault with no loss of earnings to the injured member.
However, in Cork, Kerry, and the West, “procedures have been introduced which can result in the nurse’s pay being cut immediately after the assault and not restored for three or four months”.
“Managers must be told that they either guarantee the expeditious implementation of the scheme or face industrial action.”
On a separate issue, Mr Kavanagh said he had written to Kathleen Lynch, the Minister of State with responsibility for Mental Health, calling on her to set out what investigations follow events such as murders and familicide and what learning had taken place on foot of such incidents.
He said while the HSE Strategic Plan for 2015 referred to the establishment of an Incident Support and Learning Team, the issue of deaths as a result of killings by clients of the service did “not appear to be targeted in this plan”.
Mr Kavanagh also called on the HSE to fulfil a commitment in its service plan to provide four high-observation units nationally.
Plans for a high-observation unit in Cork as part of a new acute psychiatric facility at Cork University Hospital have been temporarily shelved because of a row over staffing. The PNA is due to discuss the issue with the HSE at a Labour Relations Commission this month.
The PNA has also called for an independent review of the Government’s ‘Vision for Change’ strategy on mental health in the absence of any review of progress made in implementing the plan in the past three years.
Mr Kavanagh said that with “just a year left for this Government to run, it is time for Minister Lynch to get out of the comfort zone where she is happy to talk about the soft issues in the mental-health arena and where she is happy to focus on the debates around quality-of-life intervention”.
On the issue of pay, Mr Kavanagh said nurses will demand “full restoration of the pay they have lost in recent years as the result of cuts, charges, and changes in work practices which PNA estimate amounted to a 23% income loss”.
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