Special care system a ‘disaster’, claims Gilroy

THE system of special care is in chaos and needs to be thoroughly reviewed, a Cork-based senator has said following a damning Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) report on Gleann Alainn.

John Gilroy, who worked as a psychiatric nurse in St Stephen’s hospital, where the troubled unit is based, said the situation was a “disaster”.

His comments came after HIQA published a report which found an extraordinary litany of ongoing failures including girls going missing in the middle of the night, stolen keys, out of control behaviour, self-harming, and staff who could not cope.