HEALTH AUTHORITIES are under pressure to find alternative accommodation for dozens of patients in the acute unit of a major psychiatric hospital which is due to close by the end of next month.
Last year, the State’s mental health watchdog, the Mental Health Commission, ordered that a 32-bed acute unit at St Ita’s psychiatric hospital in Portrane, north County Dublin, must close by February 2011. It later extended this deadline to August.
This followed inspections over a number of years which found the facility to be “unfit for purpose” and “not conducive to mental wellbeing”.
A report in 2009 described St Ita’s as “dilapidated, desolate and depressing”, with concerns focusing on cramped dormitories, the smell of urine and poor ventilation.
In a statement, the Health Service Executive (HSE) said a new acute psychiatric unit at Beaumont Hospital – due to replace the old unit at St Ita’s – would not be ready until spring, 2013.
In cases where conditions or requirements are attached by the Mental Health Commission, the HSE said local managers would “ensure service access and continuity of care by collaborating with a sister service in the area”.
Plans to relocate acute services to Beaumount have been discussed for the past two decades, but have repeatedly been delayed.
The Mental Health Commission has not given any indication that health authorities will be given a further extension to find suitable accommodation.
When contacted yesterday, a spokesman for the commission said it “fully expects” the HSE to meet the condition to permanently close the acute admission units by August 31st.
“That deadline is now approaching and as we have a regulatory duty to protect the best interest of patients we fully expect that it will be met.”
When asked if sufficient time had been made available for the HSE to find suitable accommodation, the spokesman said that it was over a year since conditions had been imposed on St Ita’s and two years since its highly critical 2009 inspection report.
“The HSE has been given more than adequate time to put in place the necessary changes needed to provide a satisfactory service. The commission has been very flexible and last February extended to the HSE an extra six months to fulfil the conditions,” the spokesman said. “Our priorities are the patients, and improving the standards and conditions in mental health services, so that people receive the best care and treatment in the most appropriate settings,” he said.
The issue is now threatening to erupt into industrial action after the Psychiatric Nurses Association said the lack of alternative or refurbished accommodation was making life difficult for both staff and patients.
Mental health inspectors pointed out in their most recent report that, notwithstanding the conditions, it was “a credit to the staff on these units that they continued to develop the standard of care and treatment”.
