Shannon Clinic: Mental health unit patients and staff treated in A&E

The Shannon Clinic is based in south Belfast

Patients and staff at a psychiatric unit in south Belfast have had to be treated in hospital following an incident over the weekend.

BBC News NI understands that among those injured, one nurse sustained facial injuries.

It happened in the early hours of Saturday morning at the Shannon Clinic.

In a statement, the Belfast Trust said there is "a high vacancy rate within nursing with mental health units particularly affected".

The Shannon Clinic is a 34-bed medium secure unit, which provides inpatient services for people with mental illness who require psychiatric treatment.

It houses many patients whose behaviour is volatile and unpredictable.

It is understood an incident developed between two patients which quickly escalated and required staff to step in to protect other patients and staff members.

While it is common for staff to have to de-escalate a situation, on this occasion at least two patients and several staff had to be taken to an emergency department due to injuries they sustained.

After treatment, all were discharged and the patients were returned to their wards.

Staffing pressures

A spokesperson for the Belfast Trust said staff working in forensic mental health, as well as those across health and social care, are "experiencing increasing pressure as demand for services continues to grow".

"Whilst we are working to establish longer-term solutions, we are using agency staff to provide a high level of expertise and safe care across all mental health units.

"Our agency colleagues are integral to our team and without them we could not provide the level of care we need."

It is not clear whether a full complement of staff was on the ward during the incident but, according to the trust, of the four on duty, one was an agency staff member.

The trust thanked all staff for their commitment.