The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
THE Health Service Executive (HSE) has agreed to recruit an extra 14 psychiatric nurses, following 36 alleged assaults on staff working in the Galway Mental Health Service for the first four months of the year. Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) secretary, Des Kavanagh has confirmed that the number of psychiatric nurses working in the Galway Mental Health Service is to increase from 50 to 64. In an interview with The Clare Champion, Mr Kavanagh said he recently met senior HSE managers to discuss ways to address the huge number of alleged assaults that were taking place in the service. He said the union was very concerned about the chronic staff shortage and the reluctance of management to call in additional staff on overtime or to hire agency personnel. Stating that staffing levels were at “critical levels”, he said the High Observation Unit in the Department of Psychiatry at University Hospital Galway had to remain closed due to a lack of staff. …
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