asked the Minister for Health whether his attention has been drawn to statements by the chief psychiatrist, Eastern Health Board, to the effect that there are many grave defects in the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin, which render it grossly unsuitable as a forensic care centre and to his several recommendations thereon; and, if so, what action he intends to take on this urgent matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Central Mental Hospital.
4.
I have received a copy of the report of the chief psychiatrist of the Eastern Health Board regarding the Central Mental Hospital and I am having it examined in my Department. I propose to have the matter discussed with the Eastern Health Board at an early date. When this discussion has taken place I will give my decisions in regard to future developments at the hospital.
Can the Minister state when he will be in a position to give his views on this matter?
As the Deputy knows, there can be some changes made in relation to the staff operating in the hospital now that it has been put under the supervision of the Eastern Health Board but fundamental changes, such as the provision of buildings, obviously will take longer. It will be in two stages.
The Minister for many months has used the explanation that when the hospital would be taken over by the Eastern Health Board these urgent changes, which have been pointed out for a long time as being badly needed, would be made without delay. Is the Minister now telling us that it will be some months or years before these changes can be made?
I have been quite frank with the Deputy and with the House. I made it clear that I was laying the responsibility in the first instance on the Eastern Health Board and upon Dr. Ivor Browne, the chief psychiatrist in that area. It was for him and the Eastern Health Board to make proposals so that there could be co-ordination between the Central Mental Hospital and the other psychiatric hospital in the Eastern Health Board area. I have not pretended that my Department were going to do the initial planning.
Is it not a fact that the Eastern Health Board has, through the chief psychiatrist, now discharged its responsibility to advise the Minister and that the question comes down to the removal or destruction of the existing hospital and its replacement by a 50-bed psychiatric unit? Is it not a fact that the issue is money? Will the Minister provide the money needed? That is all he has to do.
There must be a further examination of how the hospital buildings could be replaced.
5.
asked the Minister for Health what steps he proposes to take to return to district mental hospitals those persons whom the chief psychiatrist to the Eastern Health Board said could be cared for more satisfactorily there than in the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin.
I presume the Deputy has in mind the report made by the chief psychiatrist to the Eastern Health Board on 30th April. What was stated was that a careful analysis of the present population of the hospital, which had been carried out by the Department of Health, suggests that the present condition of a considerable number of long-stay patients might warrant their transfer from the Central Mental Hospital to their appropriate local mental hospital or elsewhere.
As I indicated to the House on 4th March last, a special review of all patients in the Central Mental Hospital had been undertaken with a view to determining their suitability for transfer to district mental hospitals. To date six patients have been transferred as a result of this review and a number of other cases are still under consideration in consultation with the Department of Justice.
Is it the Minister's intention to continue using the existing review mechanism or does he propose to establish a new review body composed of people such as the chief psychiatrist and the relevant heads of the district mental hospitals as the people most competent to decide the type of person they could treat elsewhere than in the Central Mental Hospital?
Until the Eastern Health Board have reorganised the management of the existing hospital it will be in order to make use of the present inspectors to continue their examination. For the Deputy's information, in relation to the transfer of some of the patients, certain elderly patients would prefer to stay in the Central Mental Hospital. This matter must be taken into account, as the Deputy knows.
Surely the Eastern Health Board cannot take over the proper control and management, as suggested by the Minister, until he provide the money in order to make it possible for them to take over the proper management of this badly organised therapeutic institution?
I have already answered the Deputy on that point.