Third of mental hospital beds closed with 21 people on waiting list
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A third of beds at the Central Mental Hospital remain closed because of staffing issues — while 21 people are on the waiting list for a bed at the facility.
The hospital was opened in Portrane, Dublin, in November 2022, replacing the previous 96-patient facility in Dundrum.
It opened with 110 operational beds and has since increased by two to capacity for 112. However, the facility was designed to hold 170 patients.
The HSE says the increase last year to 112 beds led to an “increase in the women’s service”.
It added: “The strategy for the service was to increase the capacity of the Central Mental Hospital in 2023 from 112 to 130 beds. However, due to the HSE recruitment embargo, the National Forensic Mental Health Service was unable to recruit the relevant staff to open further beds.”
It says it is hoping to increase its staffing to enable the hospital to cater for 130 in-patients in 2025, “as well as relevant staff for the opening of the Intensive Care Rehabilitation Unit — which includes 30 beds”.
The statement added: “Every effort is being made to open all 170 beds, subject to approval through the annual estimates process to recruit the required staffing resources.”
Figures provided to Fiánna Fail TD Cormac Devlin reveal there were 111 patients in the hospital in early July, with 21 on the waiting list to get a place.
The figures also show that one person is waiting on a bed for nine months, while the next longest time spent waiting is eight months. Another person has been waiting for seven months.
A spokesman for the Psychiatric Nurses Association said: “[The association has] consistently asked for all the beds in the Central Mental Hospital to be opened.
"This is just one of the impacts of the nursing shortage in mental health that [the association] is currently in dispute with the HSE on.”
This comes as recently-published reports from the prison’s visiting committees highlighted concerns about people being in the prison system when they should instead be treated for mental health issues.
For example, the visiting committee of Cloverhill Prison in Dublin highlighted that during their visits to the facility in 2022, “a significant number of men were awaiting admission to the Central Mental Hospital or placement in suitable community hospitals”.
The report noted: “As a result of the bed crisis at the Central Mental Hospital, those on the waiting list endure a substantial waiting time. The committee are particularly concerned for the welfare of these vulnerable men, the lasting harm and serious consequences for their recovery which may result from the delay in receiving appropriate treatment.”
Mr Devlin said: “Even though it is more of a modern facility than was in Dundrum, there is certainly more of a demand – not only in terms of beds in the hospital, but there is a clear demand in the community and in their outreach services.”