Officials fail to attend meeting on mental hospital

THE Department of Health and the Health Service Executive (HSE) have been criticised for their failure to attend what was described as an urgent meeting to discuss the relocation of patients from the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) to a high-security prison site at Thornton Hall.

Health authorities said they could not attend the meeting held by the all-party Oireachtas committee on health because the relevant officials are not available at this time of year.

They have arranged to reschedule the meeting for the end of September, even though the committee had a deadline of September 9 to present their proposals on the issue to Government.