Unit bosses fail to put mind over matter

If there was one over-riding message that HSE honchos wanted media to take from a tour of the new acute psychiatric unit at Cork University Hospital on January 20, it was that all was well.

As someone with no background in psychiatric nursing, I was inclined to agree. The unit was bright, airy, spacious. It housed seven landscaped interior gardens and had a “wander loop” for elderly patients with dementia to allow them to wander in safety.

HSE staff who took part in the tour reassured us that it was “fantastic” compared to the hospital’s existing psychiatric unit, known, uninspiringly, as “GF”. Mental Health Minister Kathleen Lynch enthused that the unit was “not just a different world, it’s a different universe”.