asked the Minister for Health what steps will be taken as a matter of urgency to relieve the overcrowding of adult mentally handicapped patients at St. Ita's Hospital, Portrane, County Dublin.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Dublin Hospital.
5.
I have received a proposal from Dublin Health Authority to provide a unit of 100 beds at Portrane to relieve overcrowding and to permit of the discontinuance of an existing ward where conditions are very unsatisfactory. I fully agree that extra accommodation is needed for the adult mentally handicapped, but I am not satisfied that this should be provided by new buildings at Portrane rather than by freeing beds by making provision elsewhere for geriatric patients who are at present accommodated at Portrane. I have asked the health authority to investigate this aspect as a matter of urgency. There will be no delay in dealing with this problem as far as I am concerned.
Can the Minister say when he received these proposals? Are these buildings to reman in existence and does he agree that they constitute a fire hazard to the patients?
I am not sure about the fire hazard but I know that part of the policy of my Department is to try to deal with the position of geriatric patients in mental hospitals. As the Deputy knows, this problem can be found in other countries also. The whole of the modern policy in regard to mental patients is to avoid having very large establishments. Indeed, there are some countries where it is regarded as desirable not to have more than 500 beds in any one area. This is a long-term study we are making in regard to geriatric patients in mental hospitals and, as I have said, we will examine this particular case as rapidly as we can. If we have to provide a unit of 100 beds in Portrane, we will do so, but we hope, by means of exchanges of patients, to solve the problem by placing some of the geriatric patients in Portrane elsewhere within the Dublin Health Authority institutions.
The Minister did not state when he received these proposals. Meanwhile may we be assured that these patients will not continue to live in these appalling and primitive conditions?
It would be possible to improve the conditions within the present accommodation and this matter is being examined also.
May I ask when did the Minister receive these proposals from the health authority?
I have not got the exact date.
Was it before or after the report of the visiting committee?
I could not say. The Deputy will have to ask another question.
Question No. 6.