A small group of staff at a Dublin hospital are blocking the hospital's efforts to make immediate changes aimed at alleviating overcrowding in its accident and emergency department, it has emerged.
St Vincent's Hospital wants staff on an acute psychiatric ward in the hospital to move to a newly-built psychiatric unit on the hospital grounds this week so it can use the vacated ward for patients who might otherwise have to wait on trolleys in A&E.
All staff, except psychiatric nurses, have agreed to the move, the hospital has confirmed.
"Members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association of Ireland (PNA) are refusing to co-operate with this interim measure, which is being implemented to alleviate pressure on the hospital's emergency department," it said.
Furthermore, it said the PNA had not explained why it was refusing to co-operate with the move.
Mr Des Kavanagh, general secretary of the PNA, said the new psychiatric unit on the St Vincent's campus had been ready since 2003 and his union had been looking to negotiate with the hospital about its opening since then.
He said the new unit was due to accommodate patients from St Camillus' ward in the hospital - the one hospital managers now want to use to solve problems in A&E - in addition to patients who would transfer from an old psychiatric facility in Clonskeagh, run by the former East Coast Area Health Board (ECAHB).
There had been several meetings with the ECAHB about the move but none with St Vincent's, he said.
"They [St Vincent's] then last month decided to part-open the new unit only to respond to a problem in A&E.
"It's the usual thing. Psychiatry does not count for anything but now because the Minister for Health Mary Harney has a problem with A&Es and because we have a Minister that has set targets for A&Es, the hospital wants to part open the new unit," he said.
"We will immediately co-operate with its opening if they open the unit in its entirety . . . they only want to respond to an A&E crisis. The same positive regard should be given to the mentally ill as to people in A&E," he added.
In a statement, St Vincent's said its chief executive, Mr Nicholas Jermyn, had advised staff on St Camillus' acute psychiatric ward that they would transfer to the new acute psychiatric unit on the hospital campus on Friday next, January 14th.
Mr Jermyn said the move was exclusively based on the need to alleviate pressure in A&E. He added that St Camillus' ward was the most suitable facility to enable the urgent expansion of the emergency department.
The new psychiatric unit on the hospital grounds will be run by the former ECAHB, to which St Vincent's staff will transfer. While one source claimed to this newspaper that part of the delay in moving to the new unit was due to a dispute over relocation expenses, the PNA denied this.
Relocation expenses will be paid, however, to staff moving from the Vergemount unit in Clonskeagh to St Vincent's.
A spokesman for the former ECAHB said he hoped the move from Vergemount to St Vincent's would be completed next month.