James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In a recent incident in Waterford a 16 year old boy spent 40 hours in the emergency department at the weekend, 24 hours of it on a chair. He also suffers with autism so he spent most of the time with a blanket over his head because the bright lights, distress and the movement around him were very stressful for him. Not only was that an outrageous situation, but it is also striking than when a consultant child psychiatrist could be located the psychiatrist had to contact every child inpatient unit to try to find a bed, fill in forms and applications and give reasons. That is an outrageous waste of the time of a consultant child psychiatrist at a weekend. Surely there should be a bed manager or a single point of application.