Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The sample audit for north Kerry child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, is due either this week or next week. In my view, the HSE must expand the sample audit to a full review of all files in north Kerry, going back 15 years, as a matter of urgency. As the Minister of State knows, the Maskey report found that significant harm was caused to 46 children in south Kerry and that a further 240 were placed at risk of serious harm. Since that report was published, I have spoken to social workers, parents, patients and former patients. I spoke to a social worker who expressed concern about the supervision of children when there was no consultant psychiatric cover. The social worker told me that requests were made for a review of children who attended CAMHS from 2005 to 2015, when a consultant psychiatrist was eventually appointed. The concerns that she raised at that time were not addressed. The social worker told me that many children were placed on strong psychotropic medication, with poor follow-up. That was not even in Kerry but in another county.

Some parents may even be unaware that their children were under the care of CAMHS because it happened prior to the HSE taking over in 2014. I spoke to the parents of a child in the north Kerry area who is now in his mid-20s. He was a promising sports player but does not leave the house now. He suffered huge weight gain. His life has been destroyed. He was later told by another doctor that there was really not much wrong with him that justified that treatment and overmedication. Parents who were desperate to get help for their children trusted doctors but were let down. Their agony must not be prolonged by any more indecision and delays.

The Minister of State called for a full review but that has not happened. I am repeating the call for a full review. On the heels of the Maskey report, we were told that there are reports that the medical practitioner at the centre of south Kerry CAMHS may have been assigned to north Kerry CAMHS patients. That was reported by RTÉ. The sample audit of the north Kerry CAMHS patients was announced eight months ago. The scope was limited to a sample of 10% of current patients or about 50 cases. That sample audit was not enough then, as we said then and are saying again now. The history of overmedication, no supervision, poor governance and lack of clinical oversight predates the HSE taking over in 2014. I hear that complaints were made by social workers about poor follow-up in the Cork area from 2010 to 2012. I also am concerned that south Kerry families are being let down. They are not receiving therapies that they were promised and some therapies that were received were only online. Despite requests from me to the Minister for Health and the HSE to extend the sample audit to a full review of all north Kerry CAMHS patients over the past 15 years, the HSE has rigidly adhered to the sample audit.

I repeat my call to the Minister of State. The consequences for children, many of whom are now adults, are far too serious for anything other than a full review.

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