Psychiatric nurses at Tralee General Hospital in Co Kerry are to go on strike this Friday. This follows their failure to reach agreement with Southern Health Board management on staffing and safety issues at the hospital's psychiatric unit.
Negotiations have broken down for the second time.
Among the nurses' concerns are management's failure to provide "proper" personal alarms and the unsuitability of the unit for recently-introduced admissions procedures, according to Mr Pat Murphy, who is branch secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses' Association in Kerry North.
Patients between the ages of 18 and 80 occupied the 50-bed unit, which had not been purpose-built, Mr Murphy said.
Recently handcuffed patients under Garda escort had begun to be admitted to the unit in Tralee.
This caused upset and disruption to the patients because there is no proper reception area, Mr Murphy said.
They were waiting for a high observation area to be built, he said, and wanted the admission of patients under Garda escort to revert to the secure unit in Killarney as had been the case until recently.
The Tralee unit was understaffed and was run by just 11 nurses, he said. Nurses had been assaulted in the unit.
The strike would probably take the form of one-day stoppages, he added.
However, a spokeswoman for the Southern Health Board said the strike was unnecessary.
Staffing levels had been improved in recent years, she added.
As well, quotes for a personal alarm system that would be integrated into the hospital's overall alarm system had been obtained, the spokeswoman said.
There were also plans for a six-bed high observation unit at the hospital, she said.