TD urges additional mental health staffing in Cork

A Cork TD has called for additional mental health staffing in Cork, as shortages in the Adult Mental Health Unit at Cork University Hospital were outlined in a recent report.

Several serious concerns in the centre were noted by the Mental Health Commission (MHC), who identified a high level of critical non-compliances in a recent report. The MHC found issues in the areas of access to therapeutic services, care planning, general health, staffing, staff training, and risk management.

Cork South Central Social Democrat TD and party health spokesperson, Padraig Rice , said the report shows that vacancies are impacting service provision.

“The Government is quick to tell us that we’ve seen huge growth in HSE staffing, but this is not reflected by MHC inspectors, who said this particular unit ‘was not kept in a good state of repair, externally or internally’, and found ‘staffing shortages across disciplines’.”

“While there has been a national increase in staffing in the HSE, this statistic does not acknowledge the low baseline we started from after austerity measures. In many healthcare settings, any increase still lags far behind the required level of need to safely care for those availing of their services,” said Mr Rice.

“Susie Keane, a constituent of mine, has raised the alarm over the care her mother has received in this facility — since February, she has fallen four times. I agree with Susie that this inadequate level of care is primarily caused by understaffing of nurses, therapists and consultants. I’ve written to the HSE on her behalf to address this issue.”

Mr Rice called for “profound and urgent action” to be taken on a national level to tackle “chronic understaffing”, saying that the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland’s report on CAMHS released last week also showed the extreme difficulty to recruit mental health staff as a result of the Pay and Numbers Strategy.

“To say that healthcare staffing isn’t in crisis ignores the lived experience of all those who are suffering on waiting lists and on trolleys in corridors, and all of those staff whose backs are broken attempting to shoulder unmanageable workloads resulting from government mismanagement,” he said.

“The minister must finally accept that there are major staff shortages across our health service and commit to proper workforce planning, based on safe staffing levels, and honour commitments to previously funded posts.”