THREE WARDS at a psychiatric hospital in Co Westmeath are to be closed by next March, the Mental Health Commission has said.
A report on St Loman’s Hospital in Mullingar, published yesterday following an inspection last March, said said some toilets at the hospital had open drains, peeling paint and falling tiles.
It said St Edna’s, St Brigid’s and St Marie Goretti’s wards should have been refurbished by May this year and should be closed next spring.
The 95-bed hospital was non-compliant in three of the 30 areas under which it was examined by the commission.
The building itself came in for most criticism.
St Edna’s ward, opened in 1847, was “unsuitable as accommodation for residents”, the report found.
“The bedrooms were cell-like and stuffy. The toilets were in very poor state with open drains and the floor was stained and marked. The shower was in poor condition,” it said.
The condition of the toilets, bathrooms and showers was “very poor” in St Brigid’s ward, which was more than 70 years old, though staff had made efforts “to make the ward homely”.
In St Marie Goretti’s ward, built in 1938, the toilets, shower and bathrooms were poor.
“Tiles were falling off the walls and paint was peeling in the shower. There was paint peeling in the dining room,” it said.
Privacy at the hospital was at minimal compliance level, the report said, and one toilet area had low “stall-like doors that offered little privacy”.
“Nursing staff provided hard-copy e-mail evidence to the inspectorate which indicated that the concern regarding privacy curtains around beds had been highlighted as far back as June 2010,” the report said.
There was also minimal compliance in relation to treatment of people with intellectual disabilities, of whom there was one.
Nurses at the hospital were praised in the report, including for the “considerable effort” they made in St Edna’s ward to provide therapeutic services and programmes for the residents.
“The garden project continued to provide an excellent programme for residents,” the report said.
It recommended that more occupational therapy should be provided at the hospital and all residents should have individual care plans.
“Plans to close the continuing care units in the hospital should proceed as quickly as possible,” it said.
Reports related to one community-based centre and six other psychiatric hospitals and units were also published. Out of these, four had some level of non-compliance, mainly related to the upkeep of care plans for patients and the availability of therapeutic services.
