HSE incompetence - Heads must start rolling

The inefficiencies and incompetence of the HSE seem to know no bounds. Despite a promise of 16 fully functioning child and adolescent community mental health teams for 2007 and 2008, only three have been provided.

The mental health plan of 2001 concluded that “urgent attention” should be given to the completion of four 20-bed units in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Dublin. The total compliment for the country is now 22 beds – 12 in Dublin and 10 in Galway.

As a result young people are being put into adult units. In 2007 there were about 3,600 children and adolescents on waiting lists, and at least a third of those had been waiting for over a year.