The Department of Health has confirmed it will be discussing with the North Eastern Health Board a report published yesterday which revealed a man found guilty but insane of murdering his nephew had had to wait four months for an appointment with the mental health services in Co Louth.
Mr David Brennan was referred by his GP to the south Louth mental health services on October 8th, 1999. He was not given an appointment until February 15th the following year. Mr Brennan did not keep the appointment and was given one for the following month. In the meantime, he strangled his 17-month-old nephew.
Following his trial, the health board, the report said, considered it appropriate to examine the board's overall involvement in Mr Brennan's care and treatment. It appointed a three-person review group to do so and their report has now been published.
It found the waiting list for new appointments in south Louth "unacceptably long" and said there was "no evidence that this had been effectively dealt with in the intervening time".
It added: "In the south Louth sector, the waiting time is up to nine months in contrast with other sectors in the Louth catchment, which are at most six weeks". The report also said staffing of the south Louth mental health sector "remains inadequate".
A spokesman for the Department of Health said last night: "We will be discussing issues arising from the report with the North Eastern Health Board."
Labour's spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus, said it was a severe warning to the Minister for Health that people could not be left languishing on waiting lists.Fine Gael's spokeswoman on health, Ms Olivia Mitchell, said it was intolerable and dangerous that inadequate staff levels existed in a psychiatric service having to deal with acutely ill patients.
While Mr Brennan awaited his appointment to see the mental health services, his mother and aunt, concerned about his condition on February 29th, 2000, took him to his GP who referred him to St Brigid's psychiatric hospital in Ardee. A senior house officer, Dr M.S. Das, offered him voluntary admission. Mr Brennan refused and returned home. That night or in the early hours of the next morning, he killed his nephew.
The review group, which made several recommendations, did not examine the clinical decisions made in Mr Brennan's case.
The Brennan family's solicitor, Mr Patrick Goodwin, said it was unfortunate the only forum they could now get to look at this was the courts. He confirmed the family would be issuing civil proceedings against St Brigid's hospital and Dr Das.
The review group said contact should have been made by a senior member of staff at the health board with Mr Brennan's family following the tragedy and professional help should have been offered them, if necessary. Counselling was offered to staff.
They recommended that families be offered support in future and that a method of screening and giving priority to new referrals to the mental health services be immediately implemented. In addition, an audit of waiting times should take place to find reasons for the delays in seeing patients in south Louth, it said.
The review group also said referrals to the psychiatric services by GPs should be acknowledged within one week, giving details of the patient's likely waiting time.
The health board in a statement said the recommendations were being considered by a working group and that "any necessary changes will be implemented".