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A TD FOR ROSCOMMON has demanded an immediate audit into the staffing levels at the acute psychiatric unit in Roscommon’s General Hospital – claiming the unit is already understaffed, amid plans to move even more challenging patients into its care.
The calls from Denis Naughten follow a meeting with the HSE and the local health forum today, when the chronic staffing problems at the unit were discussed.
The staffing levels at the unit were brought into the public eye this week when Taoiseach Enda Kenny blamed “high levels of sick leave” for a staffing crisis last weekend when a suicidal man was turned away from the facility after it reached full capacity.
The Psychiatric Nurses Association has claimed that only one member of staff is on long-term sick leave – and that this was because she was recovering from an assault by a patient two months ago.
The unit first came to public attention when Sinéad McPartland Brennan, a 38-year-old mother-of-two, took her own life at the unit last month.
This evening Denis Naughten said another two of the unit’s 22 staff had this week been absent on stress-related sick leave, while another three staff were on maternity leave and had not been replaced.
“Within the acute psychiatric unit in Roscommon there are patients being inappropriately accommodated there,” Naughten told TheJournal.ie.
One patient in the unit was particularly disruptive, and required “admission to a secure setting”, Naughten said – saying it had emerged that another patient in similar circumstances would be moved to Roscommon from another unit in the west, a move he described as “chaotic”.
Local HSE officials are to meet with Kathleen Lynch, the junior minister responsible for mental health, in two weeks’ time to discuss the construction of an interim intensive care rehabilitation unit on the site of Merlin Park Hospital in Galway.
Even if Lynch immediately signed off on plans to provide such a facility, Naughten said, “you’re talking about next year before that facility could be operational” – a situation which did nothing to alleviate the immediate staffing crisis in Roscommon.
Naughten said the HSE had insisted there was enough staff in the Roscommon-Galway service to operate services, including the acute psychiatric unit in Roscommon – but it had become evident that this was skewed because of the number of staff assigned to facilities in Galway.
His comments echoed those of the Psychiatric Nurses Association, which said last week that some patients realistically needed one-to-one nursing – a situation which meant, in one case, that a single nurse had to care for up to 20 patients at once.
Naughten said the PNA’s position was one he was “hearing not just from nursing staff, but others in the unit, from patients, from their families, and other people associated with the mental health service in Roscommon”.
The former Fine Gael TD, who was booted from the parliamentary party after breaking the party whip in a vote on the closure of Roscommon’s 24/7 emergency department, said the results of a staffing audit should be published immediately to re-establish public confidence in the facility.
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It’s all well and good until Stevie starts humping the microwave during the night
@DarkHorse: That’s a silly comment . This is very serious but the article doesn’t tell us how to access , so its a useless article.
@rory conway: I mean not really, as they haven’t been on sale yet. They’re flying to the States later this month, where a care home will be trialing the beta version.
Can he make a good cup of tae though? Or boil an egg? Or put a few sods of turf on the fire?
As long as it’s used to complement human interaction and not replace it, it’s a good idea. Having spent summers at college working as a home help, i am aware that i was the only person many elderly people spoke to during the day. My being there for a chat was at times more important than my ability to light the fire
@Anne Marie Devlin:
Very good point.
May I be the first to welcome our new robot overlords.
Seriously though, cool bit of tech.
Japan, the US and other places are vastly more developed in the technologies required to implement practical autonomous robotic supports.
It’s a good idea but only if Trinity College collaborates with the best abroad.
As matters now stand, one small country does not have the embedded knowledge base, the centre of expertise, the resources and the funding required to make a massive project of this nature anything more than a prototype.
@Fiona deFreyne: Do you just put everything down? Ireland has produced leading technologies in the past beating those with more resources and been at it longer. They could easily develop key components for the future of all robot via software or hardware.
@Kal Ipers: it is a matter of scale, accumulated expertise, level of previous investment in R &D, historically, accumulated IPR, the legacy knowledge and expertise not to have to reinvent any wheels and the large numbers of highly quality researchers required to develop cutting edge technologies in areas off deep machine learning. The scale of investment required for success is truly huge.
We have talent here but it is fair to say that we have had a brain flow to the US and to Cambridge in the UK in relevant disciplines. There are many reasons for this.
Trinity can’t play a valuable role as an adjunct to leading research elsewhere.
Honda has already achieved much techological success in Japan with robots dedicated to health care for the elderly. I don’t know if there can be technology sharing and cooperation arrangements.
Knowing the scale of the problem is a first step. I would not select Ireland a a base for developing new generation rockets for outer space exploration or other areas of resource intensive projects. Robotics and autonomous intelligence devices is one of the mist resource intensive areas that could be selected.
@Fiona deFreyne: None of that has anything to do with your constant putting down everything. Again I reject your view and that is mostly because it is always negative.
@Fiona deFreyne: so you don’t know how to do it huh?
They should really get in touch with the Japanese on this subject. They have been pouring money on this subject for decades and a trip to them could shave years off the project.
Also, the arms are way too short and lack any function. Infact, the whole robot cannot do more than a smartphone. I feel like someone is laughing right now.
Ye it would be if the likes of rich politicians didn’t want to force the elderly out of their home
@WilhelminaMCallaghan: When was that ever suggested or done?
Sounds like a great idea. I thought they’d need to be a lot stronger though. And have a hoist, or arms, to help them in and out in the bathroom? But they’d never get bored listening to people, I suppose, there’s that.
All the wiley aul fellas will be figuring out how to bypass him so they can slip off to the pub and bookies
Can it make a good cup of tae though? Boil an egg or throw a few sods of turf on the fire?
I assume he meant Kryten from Red Dwarf not Croydon from Deep Space Nine lol
Fck that, sophia the robot destroys stevie
If you want to watch a creepy interview with a robot check this out.. http://uk.businessinsider.com/interview-with-sophia-ai-robot-hanson-said-it-would-destroy-humans-2017-11
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: True, it doesn’t have much to say for itself. It wouldn’t pass the Turing test; you can tell it’s a bot. But there’s always the ELIZA effect. Sure the robot carers are meant primarily for people with no one to listen to them all day. I think there’s a huge market for them considering that retired people are living so much longer.
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: scary stuff! I’d say cults will purchase loads of these and put them out there in homes and such like to brainwash everyone!!
Daughter got a Furbie one year for Christmas thing turned seriously nasty and using bad language and had to be re-set… A Furbie!!! Yup dangerous road ahead…
@Lydia McLoughlin: Maybe they’ll persuade a few people that bus fares aren’t tuppence any more. Mind you, the bad language can’t have been that bad if you understood it.
Petril?
have your say