THE PSYCHIATRIC NURSES Association (PNA) has given notice to the HSE of the commencement of industrial action by its members from 26 March.

It’s in response to what the PNA describes as the “continued failure of the HSE to exempt mental health services from proposed cuts in nursing numbers and unacceptable restrictions on recruitment”.

In 2023, the HSE enforced a recruitment freeze because it said growth in the workforce was running above projections and what was affordable.

Then in July 2024, the freeze was replaced with a new HSE Pay and Numbers Strategy that introduced a staffing cap on health services.

In a statement today, the PNA said that this Pay and Numbers Strategy has caused staffing in mental health services to be reduced to “unsustainable levels” and that “service delivery and development has been impacted across the mental health services”. 

“The reality of the Pay and Numbers Strategy is that it is a blunt instrument which will effectively wipe out over 700 vacant psychiatric nursing posts from mental health,” said PNA general secretary Peter Hughes.

He added that talks with the HSE at the Workplace Relations Commission had “reached an impasse and the union has been left with no option but to embark on industrial action”. 

Hughes said that staffing shortages has left services “hugely reliant on overtime and agency to maintain basic services and is severely impacting on service development”.

He also warned that “continued adherence to the Pay and Numbers Strategy will result in the closure of Adult Mental Health Services and CAMHS services and severely curtail community services”.

“This situation is unsustainable if we are to meet the growing and complex demands for mental health services.

“With this level of staff shortage our members are burned out, frustrated, and fed up with continuously holding services together with minimal resources.”

While Hughes said some progress had been made through talks at the WRC, he added that an “impasse” had been reached at the last engagement on 21 February.

“The HSE management team could not address the matters on which we were seeking commitments,” said Hughes.

“We were informed by the management team that they do not have the decision-making powers to give commitments regarding the issues raised by PNA.”

 These issues included a written commitment that all 2025 psychiatric nursing graduates will be offered permanent contracts, separate from the pay and numbers controls. 

It also includes a commitment that the recruitment process currently in place is made “more efficient and streamlined as some areas have seen delays in filling posts of up to eight months”. 

Hughes said the PNA “cannot allow the decimation of the mental health services”.

“The strategy, as it currently stands, would destroy decades of work and development in mental health.

“Due to this, we have been left with no option but to commence industrial action from Wednesday, 26 of March.”

The notice of industrial action from the PNA comes a day after the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and Fórsa will served the HSE and Section 38 voluntary hospitals with notice of industrial action.

This notice of industrial action is also in relation to a dispute over staffing levels.