PSYCHIATRIC NURSES HOLD INDUSTRIAL ACTION AT UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL GALWAY
Industrial action involving psychiatric nurses at University Hospital Galway is underway today.
Ongoing security concerns among staff at a unit there prompted 10 of them to turn up for work but refuse to take up duties on one morning last month.
More than 30 assaults on members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association have been recorded there since the start of the year, and today sees the beginning of a work-to-rule.
Peter Hughes is the General Secretary of the PNA.
He says staffing levels are organised according to the number of admissions to the unit and that is wrong.
“And throughout the country acute units – it’s the amount of beds on a unit that would determine the staffing compliment” he said.
“Because with an acute psychiatric unit, you don’t know…how the next admission would present, and may present with challenging behaviour”.
“So you would always staff a unit like that, regarding the amount of beds” he added.
