Alcoholics should be treated — not arrested
The nurses' station is situated in an area where the staff cannot observe the patients.
Patients with alcohol-related problems have no safe haven since the closure of St Canice's. We have patients wandering our streets and being arrested by gardaí. We must not forget that alcohol addiction is an illness not a crime.
This section of our society is being dismissed by our medical psychiatric services and the gardaí, when all they need is the help they rightly deserve.
There is no shortage of nurses, so I cannot understand their refusal to admit patients with detoxification needs.
The inspector's report is an appalling indictment of the provision and management of services. He states there is an almost complete absence of appropriate community-based services in Kilkenny so much for patient care.
It beggars belief that the cost of the mental health service in Kilkenny was €11.58 million in 2001.
This report is consistent with what I have highlighted over a number of years and maybe now, just maybe, they might listen and put the proper procedures in place to protect those in care.
Anne Ryan,
70, High Street,
Kilkenny.
