Mental hospital closed to admissions

THE Central Mental Hospital (CMH) will be closed to new admissions until the end of the summer at the earliest and even then will only take in new patients as others leave.

Fine Gael yesterday said mental health minister John Moloney had confirmed to the party that CMH must refuse new admissions because staff vacancies cannot be filled due to the HSE recruitment embargo. Those new admissions would include members of the public who are at a major a risk of suicide and prisoners who have either been declared not guilty by reason of insanity or are a risk to themselves or others.

Niall O’Sullivan, Psychiatric Nurses Association branch secretary, said the hospital had confirmed to him that there are still 23 vacancies, and while a small number of staff are due to return from career breaks they are more than outnumbered by the number who are due to retire before the end of the summer.