Delays persist over Central Mental Hospital move to new campus

Central Mental Hospital: Was supposed to move from Dundrum in 2019.

The inspector of mental health services has said “we are all waiting” for the Central Mental Hospital to move to its new campus, as she identified three “high-risk” breaches at its current Victorian-era facility.

The country’s sole forensic psychiatric hospital was initially supposed to leave its home in Dundrum, south Dublin, and move into Portrane, north Dublin, by the close of 2019.

The CMH, known as the National Forensic Mental Health Service, was hit by delays and was expected to open by the summer of 2020, which the HSE then put back to the last quarter of that year.

The Mental Health Commission said on Thursday that it had required "the closure of the Central Mental Hospital as an approved centre by 30 March 2022”.

At the launch of her inspection report, Dr Susan Finnerty, the inspector of mental health services, said: “We are all waiting for the National Forensic Mental Health Service [CMH] to transfer from Dundrum to its new facility in Portrane, which we understand will take place in the near future.”

She said many of the aspects criticised in the CMH report were “down to the unsuitable premises” in which the centre operated. 

The sooner the Portrane centre is registered and starts to admit patients, the better for all concerned.

The report said the buildings at the Dundrum centre were not fit for purpose for the care and treatment of service users experiencing mental illness.

The CMH takes people with severe psychiatric illnesses from the courts, prisons, and the community.

Bed capacity issue

The inspection report said that while it had a bed capacity of 106, it had an operational capacity of 93 at the time of inspection, over days in November to December 2021 and February 2022.

It said the reduced capacity was to some degree due to Covid-19 measures.

It said there were 96 residents there during the inspection and commented: “So while technically overcapacity on operational numbers for the previous number of weeks, the inspection team fully acknowledged the many great external pressures of court orders, prison referrals, and other waiting lists.” 

It noted that while overall compliance was at 89% in 2021, that marked a “significant improvement” on the previous year, when it stood at 74%, which was up from 69% in 2019. It said:

However, there were three high-risk non-compliances observed during inspection.

As well as repair, the report said privacy was a problem and that seclusion facilities were outdated, small, and cold.

A second report concerned St John of God Hospital in Stillorgan, South Dublin, where it identified one high risk, relating to the discharge of a patient. There was a slight reduction in compliance rate, from 94% to 89%.

The third report related to Lois Bridges, a private eating-disorder service in North Dublin, where the inspection team documented two high-risk non-compliances. They concerned risk management and staffing.