The State's only facility for treating mentally disordered offenders has stopped taking admissions because of a shortage of nurses and the subsequent closure of beds, The Irish Times has learned.
Prisoners with severe psychological illness are at increased risk of suicide and self-harm following the closure of the Central Mental Hospital in Dublin to admissions, it has been claimed.
The Central Mental Hospital (CMH) in Dundrum has been closed to admissions since last Monday and is unable to say when it will reopen to new patients. It normally takes up to three people with severe psychological illness every week from prisons around the State.
Dr Harry Kennedy, consultant forensic psychiatrist at the hospital, said: "Because we are unable to admit patients at present, increasing numbers of severely mentally ill people are accumulating in prisons. They are at risk of suicide there despite the best efforts of prison staff. My colleagues and I at CMH are very concerned about the situation."
The governor of Mountjoy prison, Mr John Lonergan, confirmed he had been "put on notice" that the CMH would stop providing admissions from the prison. He said it was unsafe that people who had a severe psychosis or suffered from severe depression would remain in the "inappropriate environment" of a prison.
The pressure on services at CMH - which has 89 beds - is twofold. As the number of committals to prisons rises, the pressure on its facilities increases and with an ongoing difficulty in recruiting nurses, it cannot safely staff its wards. The hospital is in the process of closing down 10 beds as patients are discharged.
According to sources at the hospital, the problem must be seen in the context of the overall provision of psychiatric services in the State. As bed numbers in the system have decreased, patients with psychological illness are waiting longer for treatment. Many end up in prison where they are diagnosed and recommended for transfer to CMH for medical treatment.
The CMH facilities were condemned by the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture in 1997.
It criticised the practice of locking all patients in their rooms at night. The Irish Times has also learned that 58 patients out of 89 do not have en-suite facilities and have to "slop out" their rooms.
An East Coast Area Health Board spokesman confirmed there had been a temporary closure of 10 beds because of staff shortages but that the board was engaged in a recruitment campaign.