HSE staffing shortages - Cutbacks are a recipe for disaster

It MIGHT be flippant to suggest that conditions at the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) are ‘crazy’, but before long we could be wondering if some of those responsible for those conditions are not in need of treatment themselves.

Professor Harry Kennedy, the head of CMH, issued a stark warning to the boss of the HSE last June that solicitors for the criminally insane will mount costly legal challenges because — due to the chronic lack of staff — the treatment being provided for patients is inadequate to meet the standards set down in law.

Problems have been escalating since then. These are not just confined to the CMH. There are also stories in the Irish Examiner today about cruelly insensitive practices at St Brendan’s Hospital, Grangegorman, and St Finan’s Hospital, Killarney.