Mental Health Commission may be given ‘Hiqa-type’ watchdog role

Junior health minister Kathleen Lynch has raised the possibility of extending the role of the Mental Health Commission (MHC) to the inspection of community outpatient mental health services.

Ms Lynch, who has responsibility for mental health, made her comments following a tour of a new €15m state-of-the-art acute inpatient psychiatric unit at Cork University Hospital (CUH) yesterday.

The MHC currently inspects inpatient units. Ms Lynch said she considered the MHC to be the ‘Hiqa’, or health watchdog, of the mental health services.