Expert: Central hospital facing legal challenges

THE Central Mental Hospital is facing a raft of legal challenges because offenders are not being rehabilitated adequately due to chronic staff shortages, the head of the country’s most high- profile unit has warned.

Documents obtained by the Irish Examiner reveal the extent of the crisis which forced CMH head Professor Harry Kennedy to write to HSE boss Cathal Magee in June warning that legal requirements around care, set down in legislation, were not being adhered to.

Prof Kennedy further cautioned the HSE that a number of patients due to be discharged will be released without “essential treatments” and, as a result, pose “serious community risks” unless they are given high levels of community support.