James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish a speedy recovery to my opposite number, the Minister of State, Deputy Helen McEntee. The Mental Health Commission is the body charged with the health and safety of inpatients in mental health units. It is the mental health equivalent of the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA. The mental health acute unit in University Hospital Waterford serves the Waterford and Wexford areas, a population of almost 300,000 people. It has only 14 beds. It has been woefully underfunded, and since St. Senan's hospital in Wexford closed, patients from Wexford have been sent to Waterford. They are being treated as second-class citizens as it is. Now, the possibility of complete closure or, at a minimum, a reduction down to six beds is imminent. People will have little or no access to support.

The Mental Health Commission has laid out as a condition of the reregistration of the mental health unit in Waterford hospital that the capacity must be reduced to six. In the letter addressed to the department of psychiatry, the commission has decided to withdraw a proposal to refuse registration fully provided the numbers are reduced to six. Words such as "safety concerns", "overcrowding" and "unsafe" were used in the letter. This was a crisis waiting to happen. Community services are non-existent or have unethical waiting times. Despite this, the units in Waterford are to be closed. Where are the crisis intervention teams? Why are children being put into adult units? Where are the out of hours services for children and adults? Where are the crisis houses? None of these exists, yet we are going to close the only outlet, which is access to hospital units. We must increase, not decrease, services. I expect a clear response from the Minister of State.

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