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Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland

North Dublin psychiatric patients being treated in Cavan and Monaghan

In the wake of the resignation of the Beaumont Hospital Clinical Director, a local TD wants psychiatric services in Dublin examined.

PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES AT Beaumont Hospital, and across North Dublin, have been strained because of the closure of St Ita’s in Portrane, the HSE told an independent TD.

Responding to a parliamentary question from Tommy Broughan, a HSE representative admitted that psychiatric services in North Dublin were “operating within a challenging environment” and that patients were being treated as far away as Cavan.

“The service avails of regional beds in Cavan/Monaghan and Louth/Meath as required and currently there are two patients in regional units outside of North Dublin.

“The service seeks to ensure the transfer of these individuals as soon as is practically possible and subject to availability of beds in our inpatient unit.”

Concerns over the safety of psychiatric assessment at the hospital prompted the resignation of the Clinical Director at Beaumont over the weekend.

It was reported that Shane O’Neill had said in an email that the standard of care posed “significant clinical risks”.

In the HSE’s response to Broughan, they said that the opening of a new psychiatric unit on the grounds of Beaumont Hospital, the Ashlin Centre, should alleviate the current difficulties. Deputy Broughan was separately informed that this centre will open later this month.

Broughan, who is a TD for North Dublin, said that the resignation of O’Neill, as well as the HSE response, highlighted problems at the hospital.

It appears that even with the opening of new centre, there will still not be enough capacity. The other key issue of ongoing concern is that psychiatric patients are being assessed in the A&E department rather than a dedicated psychiatric admissions unit.

“I will be raising this matter with the Minister for Health James Reilly.

“It appears that the huge cuts to the health budget of almost €4 billion since 2008 are continuing to have devastating effects on our citizens, including the most vulnerable who need psychiatric services.”

Read: Clinical Director quits at Beaumont Hospital over safety concerns

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10 Comments
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    Mute Seán O'Sullivan
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    May 20th 2014, 9:14 PM

    HSE is a farce

    50
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    Mute David Burke
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    May 20th 2014, 10:13 PM

    Cavan and Monaghan are an hour from Dublin. This isn’t the 1970s.

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    Mute Serand
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    May 21st 2014, 9:09 AM

    What about all the hundreds of people from Cavan it Monaghan travelling to Dublin to have access to some health care facilities ?

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    Mute Accord Moan Eye
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    May 21st 2014, 11:25 AM

    That doesn’t make the news as Cavan and Monaghan don’t matter to the masses, including the government.
    Baffling that this is making news over 2 people, when for years and years there’s been basically no hospital facilities in Monaghan, people have died at the gates of the hospital after being turned away from the doors.
    I work with and Indian girl who went back home to India to be treated faster and cheaper than she could get seen to here. Our health service is from a third world country.

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    Mute significantrisk
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    May 20th 2014, 9:30 PM

    Misleading headline of the day award goes to…

    2 patients is not “patients”, which implies a lot of patients.

    There’s enough wrong with the HSE without dramatizing the story further.

    26
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    Mute Cian O'Callaghan
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    May 20th 2014, 10:03 PM

    A lot more than two patients have been sent out of Dublin because there are no beds for them in the temporary unit in the Joyce Rooms in Fairview. The difficulty with patients been sent away is that they don’t have access to the supports that would be available to them in Dublin. It is a very serious situation that people with severe pyschiatric difficulties cannot access appropriate acute services.

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    Mute Jed I. Knight
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    May 20th 2014, 10:02 PM

    While North Dublin psychiatric patients are being treated in the North East this invariably means that those patients from the North East requiring psychiatric care simply don’t get it, there is none.

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    Mute Rick Grimes
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    May 20th 2014, 9:11 PM

    God help them

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    Mute Eric Lensherr
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    May 20th 2014, 10:23 PM

    More evidence of the HSE’s outright lies that they are redeploying resources. They are closing acute beds but not replacing them with anything. What a joke of an organisation.

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    Mute John Murphy
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    May 21st 2014, 2:38 AM

    Imagine how the people from counties with no hospital at all feel never mind just mental health services

    14
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