A CORONER has questioned why security isn’t in place to stop patients who are involuntarily detained from leaving a Dublin hospital’s psychiatric ward.
Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell raised his concerns at the inquest of a 27-year-old man who was found dead after escaping from the psychiatric ward at St Vincent’s University Hospital.
The man was being held at St Vincent’s in Dublin 4 while being treated for schizophrenia. The court heard that upon discovering he had absconded shortly after lunchtime on October 1st, 2010, nurses alerted the Garda that he was missing. The following morning his body was found in a wooded area along the Dodder river opposite Lansdowne rugby club.
The inquest was told the deceased had no previous suicidal or self-harm tendencies and was in a positive frame of mind, looking forward to getting a job and house in the future.
Dr Allys Guerandel said the deceased had absconded on previous occasions – once jumping a wall to escape, but always returned or was brought back by gardaí. Upon his return he would tell nursing staff he was sick of being on the ward and just wanted to go for a walk or find a job.
The dead man’s father said security at the hospital seemed bizarre considering that someone who is committed to the psychiatric unit can just walk out the door.
Questioning why measures were not in place to stop involuntarily detained patients leaving, the coroner said “the door policy doesn’t seem to work considering the patient absconded five times”.
Dr Guerandel said the ward operated an open-door policy, adding that patients on the ward in an involuntary basis wore their night clothes/pyjamas at all times so they were easily identifiable if they left. She said there was a reception desk with two receptionists at the exit to the psychiatric unit who would have noticed if someone was leaving in their night clothes.
“We try to achieve a balance. It is very tragic that in this particular case it didn’t work,” she added.
The jury returned a verdict of death by suicide.