HSE ‘must improve hospital security arrangements’

AS violence in Ireland’s hospitals worsens medical consultants are insisting the Health Service Executive (HSE) improve security arrangements in all hospitals.

Irish Hospital Consultants’ Association (IHCA) secretary general Finbarr Fitzpatrick said a security review conducted for the association following an incident at St Patrick’s Hospital in Dublin found half of the 24 panic buttons were not working.

Consultants attending the IHCA’s annual conference in Mullingar at the weekend stressed that violence had increased in all hospitals.

IHCA national council member Dr John McInerney from Dublin’s Mater Hospital said he and his colleagues had noticed an increase in violence in the last few years. He said overcrowding in hospitals was partly to blame.

Last month psychiatric nurses threatened to take industrial action from today because of the Government’s failure to introduce a compensation scheme for nurses assaulted at work.

Both SIPTU Nursing and the Psychiatric Nurses’ Association (PNA) removed their threat on September 29 when the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) intervened and both unions got clarification that they said went some of the way to addressing the issue.

Attacks on psychiatric nurses last year were up almost 50% compared to a similar survey in 2002.

Consultants have also deplored the failure of both the Department of Health and the HSE to meet next month’s deadline for implementing part of the Mental Health Act that provides better protection and services to patients.

In particular, there is concern that patients involuntarily detained in mental institutions may have to wait even longer to exercise their right to an independent review.

The act also allows escorts for patients in certain circumstances and having more beds for children and adolescents and people with learning disabilities.

Mater Hospital consultant and member of the IHCA’s national council Dr Margo Wrigley claimed that with just days before the implementation of the act, the department had yet to put a panel of independent psychiatrists together.

She also pointed out that the HSE had only just advertised for tenders to supply patient escorts.