Mental health patients sleeping on floors
There are fears for the future of the psychiatric unit at University Hospital Waterford.
It's after pictures emerged this week of mental health patients sleeping on floors and chairs at the hospital due to overcrowding
The Mental Health Commission says a meeting is to take place in the coming weeks to consider the future of the unit.
Chair of the Waterford Branch of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, Leish Caulfield says the situation is very concerning.
"We have to provide a service that is of a standard," she said. "At the minute that standard is not being met. This is an ongoing issue for over two years. This issue of over-capacity and the over-reliance of our acute inpatient services has been highlighted for many many months to management, to the HSE, and to our governing body. This is not something that happened today or yesterday this has been building."
"Our acute services within Waterford comprise of two units adjoined which provides 44 beds for patients. We have at present found an ongoing situation which has been constant and consistent for over two years where we have had up to 54 patients within that 44-bed capacity," she stated.
"It is something that is absolutely intolerable and it has been ongoing which is why the Psychiatric Nurses Association took the decision 22 months ago to enter into industrial action. It is not something they did lightly but the situation is intolerable."
