BY CIARAN TIERNEY

Nurses at a state-of-the-art psychiatric unit for young people at Merlin Park Hospital began industrial action yesterday over what they claim is the failure of management to deal with an unprecedented level of assaults on staff since the facility opened last year.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) has logged over 190 assaults on union members at the Child and Adolescent Unit since it opened in January 2011, a “frightening” statistic which has impacted on staff morale because of forced sick leave due to the injuries received.

“What should be one of the best services of its kind in the country has been undermined by management’s failure to support the staff,” said PNA Industrial Relations Officer Declan Breen yesterday. “Our staff began a ‘work to rule’ this morning with heavy hearts.

“In just one year and two weeks, our members have logged 191 assaults by a small minority of patients since the opening of this unit. The unprecedented number of assaults impacts not only on the staff trying to carry out their professional duties, but on the other patients in the unit.”

Mr Breen claimed that the PNA was “horrified” by the attitude of Health Service Executive (HSE) management to staff in the unit who have been subjected to repeated and dangerous assaults.

“HSE management have a clear set of proposals to deal with this serious problem, but have refused to act on any of them, leaving staff with no action but to resolve this matter through industrial action,” he said.

“The more assaults you have, the more people are out on sick leave. It is a relatively small number of patients we are talking about, but there just is not enough staff to deal with this problem.”

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.