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THE HSE HAS confirmed it still does not have a fully operational mental health day service in Our Lady’s Hospital in Navan, Co Meath nine months after it closed the acute psychiatric unit there.
The closure last September was part of a plan to provide a centralised acute service out of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. A psychiatric facility in Ardee, Co Louth, was also closed as part of this plan, though the new unit provides for fewer beds than the two closed units combined.
Following the closure of the unit in Navan, a ‘Mental Health Day Hospital’ was opened in that space in the hospital so that some local supports would still be in place.
However the HSE has admitted it still does not have the full staff or facilities in place for this day service.
The issue was highlighted by local councillor Wayne Forde who told TheJournal.ie that this time last year “the psychiatric unit was open 24/7 and was packed”.
“This day unit is open 9.30am to 2.30pm, Monday to Friday. There’s a pool table in there, all the beds have been removed. They’ve even taken chairs out of rooms people used for counselling.
Only around three or four people seem to go now per day. Sometimes no one goes and it’s not open at all. Mental health is being very badly ignored and patients are suffering.
In correspondence to Forde, Siobhán McArdle, Head of Mental Health Services acknowledged the new day hospital facility is “not fully operational yet”.
“It is currently used by the community mental health team in Navan, but this will be extended as the reconfiguration of community mental health services progresses in Meath,” she explained.
The teams who will feed in to, and be working in, the Day Hospital will be accommodated in Beaufort House, which is located adjacent to the unit in Our Lady’s Hospital. The refurbishment of Beaufort House to accommodate these teams was only completed this week (June 2017) and the teams are expected to move in the coming weeks.
She added that a new additional consultant and milti-disciplinary team is being recruited for the Navan area in the coming months.
“This additional team will also be feeding to the Day Hospital. Once operational, we expect a significant increase in patient activity to be delivered from the day hospital in line with Vision for Change.”
Forde said the HSE has “once again put the cart before the horse taking away acute services from a hospital with no plan”.
“All these services and increase in services should have all happened prior to the shafting of the acute psychiatric unit in Navan 24/7,” he said.
“A lot of people in Meath can not get access to Drogheda in emergency situations, where patients might have a nervous breakdown, or an acute psychiatric episode.”
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The HSE and, more particular, section 38 health care providers, don’t have a recruitment problem. They have a retention problem caused by a management problem.
Stop treating the symptoms and treat the cause.
@Pauric J O’Brien: ‘The public sector has it too nice!!’ They scream, ‘Reduce wages and benefits NOW!!’ they say… Irish people leave and the same lanterned-jawed m0r0ns start moaning about people moving here who are poor enough to need these jobs. We deserve everything we get.
@Pauric J O’Brien: Exactly. The staff turnover at private healthcare facilities is phenomenal and you only have to look at recruitment agencies online including indeed.ie to see the huge amount of vacancies in this sector especially for healthcare assistants.
Educating medical professionals in Ireland is heavily subsidised by the taxpayer. There should be a three year contractual requirement to work within the Irish health system before being released in order to recoup those costs. The other problem is universities cherry picking international students to fill spaces that Irish students could easily fill. My daughter is in her final year of a medical masters. Half of the students in her year are international, mostly Canadian. The university gets huge fees from international students.
@Skipper Mac: Why should this be just medical professionals…..should it not be all professionals?
@Skipper Mac: so all that will happen then is that people will choose to study abroad. Perhaps making it more appealing for medical professionals to stay in ireland by fixing the issues that are making them leave is a better idea.
Labour’s government started a mass exodus of our young doctor’s & nurses emigrating years ago & actually sent out letters to our young unemployed encouraging them to emigrate & now their begging out for staff.
@Colette Kearns: There never has been a Labour government in Ireland. Get your facts straight before embarrassing yourself again.
@Don Hogan: Eh Joan Burton served as Tanaiste & leader of the Labour Party from 2014 to 2016 & it was herself whom sent out letters to people who were on the dole advising them to emigrate!!
@Colette Kearns: She didn’t like the fact that ordinary folk should own mobile phones either. Thankfully the likes of her and Regina Doherty were sacked by the electorate.
My two nieces, educated by the tax payer in Ireland university etc. both qualified nurses and flying out to Australia next week to work. Sorry we should contract them to do a minimum number of years in Ireland before they escape!
@Michael: that’s not fixing the problem though. If anything it will deter people for entering nursing.
@Michael: The problem is the endemic need to make things worse. As you’ve demonstrated here. Not fully your fault mind, we’re genetically pre-disposed.
Our youngsters are leaving, worst than the eightys.
Deleting comments as usual…
Imagine going to another coutry and begging nurses to come here then telling them how great they’ll have it and when they get here they’ve nowhere to live, will pay high taxes, more for a car, more for insurance, more for road tax, more for electricity, WAY more for rent and get SFA for it. When their wages come in the nurses will see these deductions:
PAYE (expected)
PRSI (expected)
USC 0.5% (WTF)
USC 2% (WTF)
USC 4.5% (WTF)
ASC 1 3.33% (WTF)
ASC 2 3.5% (WTF)
Widows & Orphans (WTF)
If that’s the case the HSE or Government should be reimbursing them their fares if working full time in the system. We need their skills big time never mind tax breaks for Multinationals or Vulture Fund’s.
Of course they are coming here as the wages are probably at least ten times higher,It is for the exact same reasons that our highly expensively trained professionals are going to Australia,Maybe two to three time the salary.Its very simple economics.I would earn at least triple my salary in Australia but I’m happy here and don’t want to go there.Should a nurse in Vietnam immediately down tools and demand ten times her salary as that what her Irish counterparts earn..??? Irish graduates should be contracted post training for a period of in order to contribute revenue towards their training.
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