asked the Minister for Health if he will state in relation to the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin, the number of persons whose cases have been reviewed and as a result of such review have been transferred from that hospital.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Central Mental Hospital.
5.
The current special review embraces all the patients in the hospital. No patients have yet been transferred but it is expected that some will at an early date.
Have any, and, if so, how many, of them been reviewed? Further, has the Minister given any new guide lines to these people who have been in nominal or in real control of these patients for so long and who have kept these people there without choosing to change them? Why should they change their minds now? Has the Minister given them a new directive?
It is simply a re-examination of the position in relation to the fact that there are some border-line cases where, in fact, a psychiatrist would disagree and I have already explained that to the House—the Deputy knows that perfectly well— whether a patient should be in a place where he is liable to escape or to require heavier sedation or to require therapeutic treatment of some kind that cannot be given in the Central Mental Hospital. Whether it is better for the patient to be in a place where there is greater security is a matter on which there is an honest difference of opinion amongst the psychiatrists. The Deputy should know that. I am having the position reviewed to see whether in the light of the present conditions of these patients it will be possible for us to make recommendations to the Minister for Justice, who is in charge of the majority of the patients who are likely to be border-line cases.
The Minister has not answered my question. I asked him why this review body, who have already accepted that these people should stay here for so long, should change their minds now. Would the Minister consider bringing in an outside consultant psychiatrist to help these people, to change those unfortunate people who are held in Dundrum and who could be very much better treated by an outside health authority?
Assistant inspectors for mental hospitals in my Department have undertaken this survey. Patients are transferred. I cannot give the exact number but I seem to recall that within a not very long period 30 persons were transferred from the Central Mental Hospital to other mental hospitals either by order of the Minister for Justice or by myself under section 207 of the Mental Health Act. There is nothing abnormal in the fact that people are transferred. We have been making a special review of the present position.
How many cases have been reviewed?
The number of patients reviewed is about 20 to 25.
The Minister is thinking of the television programme when he was told that 20 had been discharged. The Minister should read his brief.
6.
asked the Minister for Health what additional treatment facilities will be available for the non-drug addict patients at the Central Mental Hospital, Dundrum, Dublin, as from 1st April, when it will be taken over by the Eastern Regional Health Board.
As I indicated in reply to the Deputy's question on 27th January, 1971, I am confident that significant improvements will result from the transfer of the administration of the Central Mental Hospital to the Eastern Health Board. The precise range of treatments to be provided will be a matter for determination by the Eastern Health Board in consultation with the board's psychiatric advisers.
Can the Minister state why it was possible to make arrangements for the improvement of facilities for drug addicts in anticipation of the actual transfer of power on 1st April when apparently it has not been possible for similar arrangements to be made in relation to the rest of the patients?
I made the decision that I would do nothing about the long-term change required at the Central Mental Hospital until it was taken over by the Eastern Health Board because that is the simplest way of doing it from the administrative point of view.
Why were the same steps not taken in relation to the other patients?
Because there was the major question of transferring staff——
That applies in all cases.
There was the question of a number of the staff who had not formal training and there is also the matter of fitting the staff of the Eastern Health Board into the pattern at the Central Mental Hospital.