The end is in sight in a 20-year search for land suitable for a public graveyard in Killarney, Co Kerry.

A faulty fire alarm system in a Victorian-era hospital building has cost the HSE almost €32,000 in less than two years.

The need for “creative thinking” about the future use of a Victorian-era hospital complex overlooking Killarney, Co Kerry, has been highlighted.

It’s Drogheda this Sunday. Louth v Wexford in the Leinster SFC.

The Psychiatric Nurses’ Association (PNA) yesterday claimed conditions at a dedicated unit in Kerry General Hospital, where three male nurses were assaulted by a disturbed patient, are dangerous.

I refer to your front page report (Nov 12) on the high level of suicide in Co Kerry and Co Cork.

For the first time in 160 years, an imposing building which dominates Killarney, Co Kerry, and which once had more than 1,000 residents, was unoccupied last night.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association has raised concerns about further ward closures in St Finan’s Hospital, Killarney, Co Kerry before new replacement facilities for patients are provided.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association is calling for a full and independent inquiry into what it is calling a “Leas Cross” scenario, following the death of a woman recently moved from a psychiatric facility to a nursing home.

Wards in a psychiatric hospital earmarked for closure were “drab, bare, institutionalised and smelly”.

Senior HSE management have asked a psychiatric union representative to formally retract claims made about patients moved to nursing homes against their wishes and who later died.

ONE of the country’s largest mental hospitals should remain in public ownership, a town council has said.

A LARGE number of nurse retirements is impacting severely on the care of psychiatric patients in Kerry, it has been claimed.

THE Health Service Executive has strongly rejected a claim by the Psychiatric Nurses Association that residents of St Finan’s Hospital in Killarney are being transferred to another facility against their wishes.

An open letter to President Higgins

It MIGHT be flippant to suggest that conditions at the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) are ‘crazy’, but before long we could be wondering if some of those responsible for those conditions are not in need of treatment themselves.

PLANS to close a Victorian-era psychiatric hospital in Killarney, which has been earmarked for closure for more than 10 years, have finally been received by the Mental Health Commission (MHC).

THE closure of Victorian-era psychiatric institutions has been official Government policy for more than 40 years, yet hundreds of mental health patients still remain in outdated, unsuitable buildings.

AN urgent call has been made for the building of alternative facilities to replace a Victorian psychiatric hospital, due for closure in Kerry.

FAILINGS in mental health units across the country including “serious deficits” in services, “unacceptable” living conditions, and “insufficient” bathing facilities, have been highlighted in the 2008 Inspector of Mental Health Services report.

LOCAL doctors behind a new medical centre proposed for Killarney are appealing against a demand for almost €2 million in development levies.

THE Health Service Executive (HSE) yesterday came under fire because of delays in providing community-based services for psychiatric patients in Kerry.

A HANDS-OFF warning has been given to people who want to provide a graveyard in a section of the 26,000-acre Killarney National Park, where there are strict controls on development.

A CASH-STRAPPED council has been warned not to expect land for free — or even at a reasonable price — from the Southern Health Board.

A FOUR-HOUR strike by nurses in the psychiatric unit at Tralee General Hospital yesterday did not disrupt services to patients and no patients were sent home, the Southern Health Board said.