A investigation into an allegation of sexual abuse of a female patient at the Central Mental Hospital has concluded with the dismissal of a member of staff, it has emerged.
The dismissal is confirmed in the annual report of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals for 2002 published yesterday.
The report also confirms that the DPP is still considering a file in relation to another member of staff at the hospital in Dundrum, Dublin, who was suspended after allegedly being involved in the restraint of a patient who subsequently died. That incident occurred at the hospital in 2001.
The inspector, Dr Dermot Walsh, again this year expressed concern that patients at the hospital were still "slopping out". He said the hospital, which is due to be redeveloped, is unsuited for use on humanitarian grounds.
In addition to a serious nurse and attendant shortage, there was no social worker in the hospital when he carried out his inspection in November.
Referring to two deaths from lung cancer at the hospital last year, Dr Walsh said this highlighted the former practice of distributing free of charge to patients cigarettes and other tobacco products which had been seized by Customs officers. The practice has now ended at the Central Mental Hospital but persists in some other services.
Referring to the death of another patient at another unnamed hospital, Dr Walsh said the level of a psychotropic drug in the patient's system was "of toxic level". He suggests clinicians should be aware some of these drugs can induce heart failure and suggests they carry out tests on individuals who they think may be at risk before prescribing these drugs.
Dr Walsh was severely critical of conditions at two psychiatric facilities in the west. The acute in-patient unit at University College Hospital, Galway looked "shabby and unkempt . . . with leaking doors and windows". Improvements scheduled for 2002 did not take place.
He described one ward at St Brigid's Hospital in Ballinasloe as "a museum piece from another, unenlightened age" but said management were frustrated by opposition from staff representative bodies in their bid to improve things. On another issue in mental hospitals, Dr Walsh expressed unhappiness with the level of record-keeping. Often files were missing information of "the most fundamental nature" such as when a patient was admitted or discharged.
Furthermore, he expressed major frustration at the lack of provision by local authorities of housing for the mentally ill and with difficulties encountered finding accommodation in the private sector for former patients because of supply and cost factors. "As a result many inpatients had to remain in hospital unnecessarily," he said. There were 3,966 patients resident in Irish psychiatric hospitals at the end of 2002.
In addition the inspector has urged hospitals to give patients more fruit and vegetables, particularly in their evening meal. "Too often, fare appears to centre around fried foods, exclusively."