Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

In 2010, the Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government and the HSE decided to close the 50 bed acute psychiatric unit for inpatients at St. Michael's unit, South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel. The unit catered for patients suffering from mental illness from all over County Tipperary. There was no consultation whatsoever with stakeholders about the decision. The first patients, family members, staff and the public knew about it was when a HSE official announced the closure on local radio.

Stakeholders immediately recognised that the decision to close the unit was a major blow to undermine the psychiatric services for patients and their families in Tipperary. Patients, carers, nursing staff, medical staff, general practitioners, public representatives and the public opposed the closure vehemently. Lobbying of Ministers and deputations to Ministers followed but all of it was to no avail.

The then Minister of State at the Department of Health, Kathleen Lynch, bulldozed the closure through in 2012, sending north Tipperary inpatients to Ennis and south Tipperary inpatients to Kilkenny. The Rolls-Royce community-based service promised has turned out to be a Mini Cooper, understaffed underfunded and under-resourced. As bad as the community service is, the inpatient service at the department of psychiatry at St. Luke's General Hospital, Kilkenny, has turned out, as predicted, to be an absolute disaster for patients, their families and staff. It is a nightmare to be a patient, a family member or a member of staff at the department of psychiatry at St. Luke's General Hospital, Kilkenny. The unit is constantly overcrowded. Despite the HSE knowledge of this situation, nothing has changed and nothing has been done about it. Patients are being admitted to an overcrowded and unsafe place. They are being admitted to couches and chairs and sleep on mattresses on the floor of the unit. Last Monday was yet another straw that broke the camel's back, when 51 patients were in a 44 bed unit. This included seven patients on couches, chairs and mattresses on the floor of the unit.

What is the Government going to do to solve this overcrowding problem? Is it acceptable that patients are admitted and put in chairs and left to sleep on mattresses on the floor? If it is unacceptable for general medical patients to be on trolleys in accident and emergency departments, why is it acceptable for psychiatric patients to sleep on mattresses in this unit in Kilkenny?

It is now accepted widely, even within the HSE, that the decision to close the unit at South Tipperary General Hospital was a major mistake. It is now time for the Government to approve the reopening of acute psychiatric beds in South Tipperary.

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