Madam, – Your Editorial (“Eventful year in healthcare”, December 29th), identified many pertinent issues. However, your mention of a positive note, highlighting the relative protection of mental health funding for 2011, sadly does not ring true.
After many years of service developments at a painstakingly slow pace and despite year-on-year reduction in percentage funding allocated for mental health, the past two years have seen an erosion of many such developments. These cuts have been facilitated and excused by the HSE recruitment moratorium which has impacted on mental health services particularly.
In the Laois/Offaly mental health services 25 per cent of acute inpatient beds were decommissioned on December 27th, 2010. This followed other cuts both on inpatient bed numbers and community care provision. These cuts are and will impact directly on patient care. Correspondence from the local consultant group to those responsible for the latest bed closures highlighted the direct negative impact on patient care and the risks involved, but these concerns were not addressed and the bed closures proceeded.
Similar service cuts are occurring throughout the country impacting on those members of the community who have acute mental health needs as well as those coping with disabling and enduring mental illness.
Is anyone listening? Does anyone care? – Yours, etc,