Psychiatric services in Longford, Westmeath and other local counties are suffering as a result of nursing vacancies.
That’s according to the general secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses Association Peter Hughes.
The PNA is holding its annual conference in Carlow today and one of the calls that will be made is for increases of €5,000 euro in pay for psychiatric nurses to bring them up to par with therapy grades in the health service.
Speaking on the Joe Finnegan show today, Peter Hughes says there is a ridiculous situation now where a staff nurse with a four years honours degree, is paid less than the healthcare assistants under their supervision.
He says these kind of anomalies have led to an exodus of trained nurses leaving gaps in services around the country:
