It is understood bosses of Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust do not want patients to return to the city until health workers call off their strike action.
Yesterday the M.E.N. revealed patients from the Park House unit, on the North Manchester General site, many them sectioned because they are considered a risk to themselves or others, were bussed to units in Darlington and Bury ahead of a three-day walkout by nurses. At the same time 32 patients were sent home.
Unison members manned picket lines on the North Manchester General, Wythenshawe and Manchester Royal Infirmary sites yesterday in protest at the suspension of union official Karen Reissmann but trust bosses said they were pleased with the number of staff who had come into work.
Alan Hartman from patient support group Manchester Users Network said: "This is terrible, shocking. The patients are already upset, they are very anxious, all they want is to go home and now they are being told managers have not decided when that will happen.
"The managers appear to be willing to site this out but the patients are the people who are suffering so they must get round the table with the union and get this sorted out."
Union leaders say they would have allowed essential staff to remain on duty to care for the sickest patients along with managers and agency staff but bosses said all hospital staff were needed and negotiations collapsed.
Unison officials say they have no plans to announce more strike dates for next week but will not rule out further action, they appealed for bosses to end the dispute by calling off the suspension.
Ms Reissmann, who has working in Manchester for 25 years and is an outspoken campaigner against NHS cuts, said: "It must be terrible for people, who are so ill they need hospital care, to have been transferred to the other side of the country with no warning. It is even worse that they have no idea when they will be coming back.
"This was all avoidable - all they had to was speak to us and we would have provided emergency cover to keep the wards open."
Unison
A MMHSCT spokesman said: "We would like to bring the patients back as soon as possible but this depends upon Unison's decision whether to take further action.
"The care and safety of our service users and patients is our priority during this period of industrial action. During our visits around the Trust today, we observed that patients were being well cared for and are extremely grateful for the hard work and dedication of staff under challenging circumstances."
Dr Judy Harrison, speaking on behalf of the trust's medics, said: "We are dismayed at the current position within MMHSCT. A planned re-organisation of community services, in line with government targets and involving additional investment, has somehow turned into a bitter and increasingly personalised dispute between staff and managers.
"We are extremely concerned about the consequences of a three day strike for our patients and have arranged for additional medical cover to be available as needed during the strike period. We appeal for a period of calm reflection to allow time to find a more constructive way forward."
One the picket line today Corrina Graham, a Staff Nurse said: "The union was prepared to offer an emergency staff but as far as I am aware this was turned down.
"It's an absolute disgrace that these people have had to be ferried half-way across the country and it definitely could have been avoided.
"It must have been at a massive cost and the financial implications must have been huge. Karen has been singled out and it's clear that they want to get her out of the way."
Val Midson, a Community Psychiatric Nurse said: "We are here to defend the rights of the trade union. This kind of thing should not happen in the NHS.
"More and more services are being put out to tender and as a result the services we provide are being drastically cut.
"It's an absolute disgrace. I've been here since 1973 and I'm absolutely appalled that something like this could happen." Tweet
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Why can't the management see further than the end of their noses. Negotiate and end this sad and sorry mess. Three cheers to everybody who is standing up for the staff and patients' rights. I support you fully even though I am in Turkey
This sounds like a form of institutionalised kidnapping. A group of patients transported with little notice to a different part of the country and no idea when they will be allowed to return and no choice in the matter. The poor patients must be utterly bewildered. Will not someone up high bring an end to this nonsense and bang some heads together.
I think the Management are acting abysmally, they should be answerable for shipping the patients out to other units. I fear for some of those patients it must have been a scary ordeal after all they were suppost to be in a recognised place of safety so they thought. Reinstate Karen Reisman and everything can then get back to normal I am sure in all her Karens 25 years of nursing she would never have approved of anyone treating patients the way the management under the new chief executive of MMHSCT have. I know alot of nursing staff and none of them would condone what MMHSCT is doing to their patients. They care more about putting their foot down than they do patients, Karen cared about both staff and patients and is being held to ransom as I see it, everyone has a right to a freedom of speach especially when the cuts involve either their or their collegues positions.
I wonder how much this is costing the MMHSCT?
Just think how many more nursing posts they could have created with the money this move has costed them so far!
I am backing Karen all the way, She CARES about her patients and her collegues unlike MMHSCT.