Dear Members
I hope you are all well as we are coming to the end of another busy year.
On the 16th November the HSE announced a recruitment freeze. From the view point of mental health services the recruitment freeze is inexplicable given that there are as many as 700 nursing vacancies in mental health with many services relying on overtime and agency staffing to an extent that is no longer sustainable.
We have witnessed the closure of a 16-bed Sub-Acute Unit at St James’s Hospital Psychiatric Unit and the failure to re-open 11 beds in the Linn Dara Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit, in Cherry Orchard, Dublin. Both of these closures were a direct result of the ongoing issues with recruitment and retention of psychiatric nursing staff into our services nationally, and last month’s announcement means there is no prospect of these services re-opening and will inevitably lead to further closures of services.
Around the country we are witnessing worrying developments where the staffing situation in our mental health services is so serious that whereas previously services would be curtailed because of staffing shortages, the HSE is now closing beds completely. Yet, the response to this crisis is to implement a recruitment freeze.
We have written to the HSE Chief Executive Officer, Mr Bernard Gloster, in relation to the extreme crisis in the Mental Health Services and have sought a derogation in relation to the recruitment of Psychiatric Nurses in order to maintain services and to prevent further closures. We cannot and will not allow the decimation of our services to continue.
As you are aware part of the resolution of the 2019/20 nursing dispute was the establishment of an Expert Review on Nursing and Midwifery which has 47 recommendations. A year ago, the inaugural meeting of the Implementation Oversight Team (IOT) took place which established 5 Implementation Action Groups (IAG) to progress 14 of the prioritised recommendations.
The remaining recommendations are being progressed through a Parallel Process. The PNA are represented on the IOT and all the IAG’s, and whilst a number of the recommendations are beneficial for nursing there are also numerous challenges. This year we had to resort to a referral to the Labour Court in relation to the timely implementation of 3 recommendations with regard to CNMII/CNMIII grades.
The Labour Court accepted the arguments put forward by the Union side, which is a significant outcome for our members. See link to the Recc Here
As you are aware the Public Service Agreement Building Momentum expires on the 31st December 2023. Talks commenced on the 22nd November with a view to a potential successor to Building Momentum. At the time of going to press the talks have been suspended until the New Year.We will keep you informed and plan to hold a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in January in relation to the above matters. I also want to remind you of other dates for your diary next year.
A National ID Branch meeting will take place on January 17th, 2024.
Our Annual Delegate Conference takes place on 18th & 19th April 2024, and the Horatio Conference will take place on the 15th & 16th May in Malmo Sweeden.
As outlined, we have a number of very significant issues to address at present and into the new year which is sure to be very challenging.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all our members for all your dedication, resilience and commitment throughout the year and I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year.
Peter Hughes
General Secretary
You Can View the Chair Persons Address, and the General Secretary's Address to Conference 2023 Here
