A Waterford Councillor says he has pictures of people sleeping on floors and chairs at the Department of Psychiatry in Waterford University Hospital.

It comes as the Psychiatric Nurses Association says overcrowding in the unit has reached unprecedented levels.

The organisation says the 44-bed unit is only licensed to have 44 patients but there were 54 on the ward over the weekend.

The PNA says there’s been an increase in assaults on staff in recent months and there’s also reports that one of the two toilets on the unit is broken.

It’s calling for an independent investigation into overcrowding at the department at UHW.

Sinn Féin councillor John Hearne says it’s not a suitable environment for people to get better in:

“This has been ongoing since last January and everyone in authority knows about it. I have some of the pictures here to show – people sleeping on the ground; and they give you a couple of blankets and they pull a screen around you, and you lie on the ground. So with the frustration, people are getting vexed and there’s fights breaking out and staff are getting assaulted and going off sick. They can’t get staff to come in because the conditions are so bad. They need to address it, it’s absolutely scandalous people lying on the corridor and dumped there.”