42% of psychiatric patients in hospital for over a year, survey finds

THERE will be more than 300 long-stay patients still living in large psychiatric hospitals in 2030 if Government policy to close down the institutions does not speed up, it has been warned.

A census of psychiatric hospitals, published by the Health Research Board, has criticised the ongoing failure of the health services to close old psychiatric hospitals.

The report, which took a snapshot of the hospital population on one night in 2010, found that of 2,812 patients, 42% had been in hospital continuously for one year or more, slightly down from 46% in 2006.