Michael Ferris
Question:174 Mr. Ferris asked the Minister for Health if he has any plans to modernise and improve St. Brendan's Hospital, Grangegorman, Dublin 7; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - St. Brendan's Hospital, Dublin.
In line with Government policy as outlined in the report on the psychiatric services Planning for the Future, the Eastern Health Board have been developing a comprehensive range of community facilities with the consequent reduction in scale of larger psychiatric institutions. One of the principal aims of this policy is to provide people who have been in psychiatric hospitals for many years with the opportunity of living an independent and autonomous life in a domestic environment in so far as they are able to do so. The main focus of attention in this regard has been on St. Brendan's Hospital, where the number of patients resident at present is 350 as compared with approximately 1,000 in 1984.
A five year patient rehabilitation programme has been put in train at St. Brendan's Hospital with the aim of placing as many as possible of the remaining patients in suitable community facilities and thereby closing wards in St. Brendan's, particularly in the older buildings.
The Eastern Health Board are endeavouring to maintain those facilities still in use at St. Brendan's Hospital at an acceptable standard of repair and decor bearing in mind the limited long-term use to which these facilities will be put.