Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Senators may remember that last May we had the unprecedented sight of psychiatric nurses marching outside University Hospital Galway due to a dispute over staffing levels. An engagement took place with management and a resolution was agreed and promised. Unfortunately, we are back to a situation where those promises have not been delivered upon and there was a crisis scenario in University Hospital Galway at the weekend when there was a shortage of psychiatric nurses in the acute unit, putting the lives of the nurses and patients in jeopardy. I have spoken to nursing representatives this morning who are extremely angry at what has happened. They feel no move has been made to try to move the psychiatric patients and the staff into the new unit at the hospital which is lying idle because of inexplicable delays and the nursing quota has not been put in place.

This is in the broader scheme of mental health services in Galway-Roscommon which are also in crisis. We have seen a reshuffling of management in that area recently. We have seen scandals in Roscommon but they all come back to the management of the service overall. Much of the pressure in UHG is due to the closure of the facility at Ballinasloe. When the facility at Ballinasloe was closed there was a promise that a community service with up to about ten nurses would be put in place to deal with people in the community but that has not been delivered upon. I ask that the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, come to the House to look specifically at the issues around Galway-Roscommon which are in absolute chaos as nobody appears to be managing the services. When the Psychiatric Nurses Association, PNA, was trying to contact management at the weekend in respect of UHG, the management which is responsible for putting nurses into the unit was nowhere to be found. It is disgraceful. This put lives in jeopardy at the weekend and the position does not appear to be improving, so we need the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, to come to the House. I hope it is only a Galway-Roscommon issue and not a nationwide issue. Certainly it is at crisis point and needs to be dealt with as a matter of urgency.