DUBLIN'S Temple Street Hospital has had to refer sick children to other hospitals because beds there are occupied by healthy children with no where to go, according to the chairman of its medical board.
Dr Tom Matthews said that he could not comment on a report that a baby under a year old has spent more than two months in the hospital.
The problem is due to a shortage of residential and foster places. Social workers say that it has worsened since Madonna House closed in the wake of a sex abuse scandal.
The Irish Association of Social Workers has called for an end to the use of acute hospitals as "places of safety" for at risk children. A social worker, Ms Bernie Price, told its recent conference that acute hospitals could not meet the emotional needs of these children.
Dr Matthews said that children in need of care were brought in by social workers and gardai. "Sometimes we have to keep three or four kids overnight."
The process of arranging case conferences and getting the health board to place them in care elsewhere could take weeks, he said. "It's sad and annoying when we have to refer kids across to Harcourt Street and Crumlin because we have no beds. Everybody in the hospital knows it is not the best place for them. We are not designed as a `place of safety'."
The Eastern Health Board has 628 foster carers, but finds it hard to get families interested, according to its recent submission to the Commission on the Family. It identifies a number of causes, among them the low weekly payment of £44.20 (this is to be increased to £60 a week for teenagers) and the difficulties of coping with the behaviour of many of the children.
Hard pressed social work teams often cannot provide foster families with the level of support they need for difficult placements.
The EHB said yesterday that it expects to recruit 100 extra foster parents as a result of a recent recruitment campaign. It has received funding from the Department of Health for extra emergency residential units and plans to place more children with extended families.