New €15m CUH psychiatric unit hit by water leak

A new €15 million psychiatric unit at Cork University Hospital (CUH) which opened less than four months ago has already been subjected to water leaks.

Siptu shop steward Des McSweeney said water penetrated the building on the weekend of November 6, raising health and safety issues around the 50-bed unit.

He said the leak resulted in the transfer of a male patient to another bedroom while the room affected was closed to facilitate repair work.

He said a patient exercise room and a nurse administration area were also affected by a leak and that water had penetrated the downstairs dining/kitchen area where meals are served to 42 patients.

Mr McSweeney said patients had also been unable to access one of seven internal courtyards where smoking is permitted because of damage to door handles.

He said this resulted in patients having no option but to smoke outside the building on the main campus.

The Irish Examiner asked the Health Service Executive (HSE) if the leaks had been repaired and if the builders would be funding the repair works given the unit was a new build.

The HSE said the infrastructure items raised in the [Irish Examiner] query had been addressed.

“As with any new building, snag items will occur and these will be dealt with appropriately by the Estates Department in conjunction with Local Management and the associated builders to ensure the response is both timely and effective as they arise,” the HSE said in a statement.

Mr McSweeney said it was worrying that infrastructure problems had arisen so soon after the unit opened given the multi-million euro investment.

“I have written to management, outlining staff concerns. It is a worry that issues like this should arise so early in the life of the unit,” Mr McSweeney said.

The unit has already been the subject of considerable controversy.

It was scheduled to open last January, but failed to do so when a row erupted over the staffing of a six-bed high observation ward.

It took eight months to resolve and in the end, the unit opened but the high observation ward, viewed as an integral part of the new service, did not.

No date has been set for its opening.

The HSE said it is committed to a defined complement of staff when the unit does open.

As part of the agreement, the HSE also committed to regularising staff in acting-up posts and to make permanent a number of staff in temporary positions.

The Irish Examiner asked if this had yet happened and was told the HSE was “not at liberty to discuss individual staff members’ contracts”.