PSYCHIATRIC NURSES HAVE deferred further industrial action following an overtime ban earlier this week. 

Members of Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) commenced an overtime ban on Thursday morning in response to recruitment and retention issues in mental health services.

In a statement this evening, the PNA said it was suspending the strike “following intensive talks with the HSE at which PNA received assurances on a number of issues at the centre of the PNA action.”

Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly had said the action was taken because of the lack of progress in talks to address the recruitment and retention crisis that is “crippling the mental health services”.

“If the service was adequately staffed, an overtime ban would have no impact. It is precisely because of the inadequate staffing levels that an overtime ban will have the impact it will.

“This is the same recruitment and retention crisis that forced nurses and midwives across the State to take to the picket line earlier this year. While members of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, concluded a deal with the government after their strike action, no agreement was reached with the PNA,” she said. 

The HSE confirmed this evening that the PNA has now deferred its strike. 

In a statement, the HSE said it “welcomes the Psychiatric Nurses Association’s decision this evening to defer industrial action, and looks forward to engaging with the PNA in the coming week with a view to resolving the issues under discussion.”