Assault warning at €13m ward

A €13m, purpose-built mental health unit for long-term psychiatric patients opens in Co Kerry today but nurses’ unions are warning that a low skill model of staff ratio and failure to reach levels of experienced staff will lead to more assaults on nurses.

The 40-bed Deer Lodge at St Margaret’s Rd, Killarney, was built two years ago but has since been lying idle. Delays in opening the unit and transferring patients from existing facilities in the grounds of the Victorian-built St Finan’s Hospital has led to much criticism.

Earlier this year Siptu, one of the nursing unions, threatened strike action.