Psych unit to open after deal with union

Members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) have voted in favour of accepting proposals that will help pave the way for the opening of a new €15m psychiatric unit following a six-month delay.

The acute adult 50-bed unit at Cork University Hospital (CUH) was meant to open in January last but mental health nurses refused to transfer on the grounds of inadequate staffing and the temporary shelving of plans by the HSE to open a six-bed high-observation unit within the facility.

The row intensified after one nurse who aired his concerns in the Irish Examiner was subsequently put off duty with pay; however Des McSweeney was cleared to return to work after the PNA threatened to withdraw from the talks.

The dispute has been to the Labour Relations Commission on a number of occasions. An earlier set of proposals designed to overcome the impasse were overwhelmingly rejected in May by both PNA members and members of Siptu, despite the fact that three out of five nurses were offered an incentive to endorse them.

The HSE overture included an offer to regularise the position of 12 staff in acting higher posts and to make 17 temporary staff permanent. In that ballot, 80% of PNA members rejected the offer. More negotiations followed and the PNA put fresh proposals to a vote on Tuesday night. This time around 18 out of 22 members (80%) voted in favour.

Des Kavanagh, PNA general secretary, said he welcomed the fact that the ballot had been carried.

“We are now waiting on the Siptu result but hopefully we will be able to move on from there,” he said.

A further 20 nurses who are Siptu members are due to cast their vote early next week. Siptu members were unanimous in their rejection of the last set of proposals.

The latest offer will bring staffing numbers at the new unit from an original proposal of 56 wholetime equivalents to a figure in the mid-70s. They also guarantee an agreed complement of staff when the high-obs unit opens, although no date has been set for when that will happen.

The use of healthcare assistants at the unit will be confined to looking after elderly patients and limited to one per shift — nurses feared they would be used to prop up nursing numbers. Other concessions include the provision of one additional staff nurse on nights and additional weekend nursing hours in the first floor eight-bed psychiatry of old age facility. In addition, a joint union/management implementation group will be established.

The new state-of-the-art unit is due to replace the outmoded GF ward at CUH which has been the subject of repeated criticism by the Mental Health Commission.

Located on the campus since 1979, the MHC has criticised its “generally unsatisfactory structural nature for modern acute care”.

The new unit has seven landscaped interior gardens; a safe “wander loop” for elderly patients with dementia; and en suite patient bedrooms.

There’s also provision for the holding of Mental Health Tribunals, where, under law, patients detained involuntarily can appeal their detention within 21 days.