Suspect bone fractures at state facility ‘three times above norms’

THE number of suspect patient bone fractures at a state institution during a 19-month period under investigation was more than three times higher than national norms during the period, it has emerged.

Between July 2002 and the end of January 2004, 19 psychiatric patients at St Luke’s Hospital in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, suffered bone fractures, the vast majority of which were said to have been “unwitnessed” by staff at the facility. However, the Irish Examiner has learned during the same 19-month period just six fractures were recorded at St Senan’s psychiatric hospital in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, with only three confirmed cases in a similar facility in Kilkenny during the timeframe.

Leaked inquiry documents from the Mental Health Commission’s (MHC) investigation into the serious injuries at the Clonmel facility have warned there is a “strong possibility” the injuries were not accidentally inflicted. A copy of the clinical risk manager’s report, which will be included in the final investigation report when it is released in the coming days, has claimed staff did not pay “particular attention to professional duty and standards of care” and the patient-mix meant “some patients are at risk of injury from others”.