Staffing shortages which have curtailed services at acute hospitals in the State have also caused difficulties in psychiatric hospitals.
The worst difficulties are felt by psychiatric hospitals in the Dublin area, including St John of God Hospital, Stillorgan, and the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum.
St John of God Hospital, a major referral centre for psychiatric patients, was forced to close a 16-bed unit for young people, its director, Brother Kilian Keaney, confirmed yesterday.
"We closed it very reluctantly. It was a very painful experience for everybody because this was a young people's unit," he said.
"Recently we went to the Philippines and interviewed nurses there and we hope they will arrive in January, at which point we will be able to reopen the closed unit."
Twenty per cent of the hospital's nursing staff have been recruited abroad, but this figure looks set to rise as attempts continue to fill 25 nursing posts.
A spokesman for the East Coast Area Health Board, in whose area the Central Mental Hospital is located, said the hospital, which has 87 patients, should have 35 registered psychiatric nurses but has only 20 at present.
Up to a quarter of clerical posts at the hospital are vacant, the spokesman said.
The East Coast Area Health Board had engaged international recruitment agencies in an attempt to get extra staff. Board representatives also attended a recruitment fair in London last week.
Two other psychiatric hospitals in Dublin - St Brendan's, Rathdown Road, and St Ita's, Portrane - have 62 nursing vacancies between them. A spokeswoman for the Northern Area Health Board said there had been no cutbacks in services because of staffing shortages. The vacancies are filled either by agency nurses or by nurses working additional hours.
The Mid Western Health Board has had difficulty recruiting temporary psychiatric nurses but a spokesman said staff shortages have not been "as severe as those reported in other parts of the country".
The South Eastern Health Board said it had no problem filling permanent nursing posts in its five psychiatric hospitals, in Enniscorthy, Carlow, Kilkenny, Clonmel and Waterford, but it found it "exceedingly difficult" to fill temporary nursing posts to cover for staff on leave.
email: hospitalwatch@irish-times.ie weblink: ireland.com Hospital Watch special: www.ireland.com/special/hospital