Patients sleeping in their clothes amid complaints about heating at new Central Mental Hospital
The state-of-the-art facility, called the National Forensic Mental Health Service Hospital, cost €220m to build on the campus of the former St Ita’s Psychiatric Hospital in Portrane, replacing the 171-year-old Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin
Patients at the new Central Mental Hospital in Portrane have been forced to sleep in their clothes and wear jackets indoors due to issues with the heating system at the €220m facility, internal documents have revealed.
Staff formally raised concerns about “extreme cold” at the hospital 25 times over a 33-day period after it officially opened last November, and complaints continued into the new year.
