Patients continue to be admitted to outdated buildings

THE closure of Victorian-era psychiatric institutions has been official Government policy for more than 40 years, yet hundreds of mental health patients still remain in outdated, unsuitable buildings.

Those who remain in such facilities are the elderly and often the most vulnerable patients.

The Irish Examiner has learnt that, as late as June, St Finan’s hospital in Killarney, Co Kerry, which is in use since 1849, and has been blacklisted by Mental Health Commission inspectors for many years, is still taking admissions from the psychiatric unit at Kerry General Hospital.