Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this and I thank the Ceann Comhairle for accepting this Topical Issue. I also thank the Minister, Deputy Reilly, for being present to respond on this important issue.

A litany of failures was identified in an internal health and safety audit of the acute psychiatric unit of University Hospital Galway which was carried out on 4 June last. It is clear from reading the report that the unit is an accident waiting to happen. The report points out that one-fifth of the staff are not complying with mandatory training in aggression and violence, and that as a result of recent cost containment, not all staff have attended, or been given the opportunity to attend, the mandatory training. The report also highlights problems with conditions in the facility, including the perennial problem with leaks in the roof which led to a water mark close to electrical connections at one location. It further highlights that a bed has been removed in another part of the unit because of the leaking roof.

However, it is not just one bed. A number of beds have been moved over the last six months due to the ongoing problem with the leaking roof. One of these beds is in the women's ward and it is known as the bed with a bucket. Patients use towels and sheets on the floor to soak up the water rather than have to listen to the continuous drip, drip, drip into a bucket. If that were happening in Guantanamo Bay it would not be acceptable, yet it is happening in an acute psychiatric unit in this country. The patients must ask the other patients in the ward for their towels to try to soak up the perennial flood of water coming through the roof. On one occasion, a patient occupying that bed moved it away from the leak, but then it was partially blocking the door into one of the two toilets on the women's ward, which are there to accommodate 16 women.

The issue is not only the quality of the facilities but also the lack of facilities, particularly for activities within the unit to help to prevent patient boredom. One patient put it to me that there is nothing to do but sit around waiting for medication. The only two options are to stay in one's bed or go for a cigarette. The staff are run off their feet, particularly dealing with specials - that is, patients who require one-to-one care because they are a risk either to themselves or to others. Due to the lack of staff support in the unit, many patients are being forced into remaining in the unit involuntarily. While the national average for involuntary patients as a proportion of all patients is approximately 11%, in the acute unit in Galway at present it is closer to 50%. That alone should set off alarms.

I spoke to a patient who had spent a period of time in the high-risk ward. They told me they spent two to three days without speaking with a nurse. This was in a high-risk ward. The nurses were too busy dealing with patients who required one-to-one care, including one forensic patient in the acute ward who should not have been accommodated in an acute psychiatric ward. Due to the lack of available staff to monitor that patient, the individual was occasionally able to roam freely through the unit.

The unit does not have adequate staff. That, combined with a building that is totally inadequate and the reports of boredom among patients, is a recipe for a serious accident in the unit.

See this speech in context