Mental health patients locked up without toilet

WOMEN in the Central Mental Hospital are locked up for 12 hours at night in cell-like rooms and have to ring for nurses to go to the toilet at night, an inspection report by the Mental Health Commission (MHC) found.

The inspection, carried out in May, raised concerns that women had told advocates that, at times, they had to wait up to 30 minutes for a nurse to let them out at night, and this had resulted in “accidents”.

The report also noted that seclusion rooms were “unsafe” due to blind spots, and that patients had to sit in grim corridors to watch television.