No weekend cover for sex assault unit

Victims of rape in Dublin are unable to access medical help at weekends because there is no doctor available for on-call duty at the city's sexual assault unit, according to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre (DRCC).

The Sexual Assault Treatment Unit (Satu) in the Rotunda Hospital is supposed to offer 24-hour, seven-day cover for victims of sexual assault or rape, but according to the DRCC, there has been no doctor available there at weekends for at least a month and the unit has been forced to close from Friday night until Sunday night.

Last Sunday night when a doctor reported for duty, there were five women waiting to be seen, some of whom could have been waiting since Friday and who would not have taken a shower or changed their clothes since they were assaulted, in order to preserve forensic evidence.

Ellen O'Malley-Dunlop, CEO of the DRCC, said the doctors at the Rotunda unit had been doing "an absolutely fantastic job" but the unit was grossly under-funded. "They are run off their feet and the hospital is stretched to its limit," she said.

"Having to wait at all to see a doctor is inhuman, but to wait all weekend . . . it is not the doctors' fault, it is the fact that the Government is not providing funding."

She called on the Government to implement the recommendations of a report that said the units should be funded separately from the hospitals in which they operated and two further units should be opened in the west and the midlands. The cost of running six units would be €2.8 million, she said.

There are four Satus in Ireland - in Letterkenny, Waterford, Cork and Dublin. All four have experienced funding problems. Victims of sexual assault and rape are brought to the Rotunda unit by gardaí and are accompanied by counsellors from the DRCC. In September the centre accompanied 38 women and last July the figure was 49.

Fine Gael Deputy Olwyn Enright said to have victims of sexual assault treated this way was appalling.

"This delay in victims being seen by a doctor could contribute to some victims not reporting the assault if they are faced with such a horrific wait over the weekend," she said.

However, a spokesman for the HSE said the problem was categorically not one of funding but due to a shortage of trained personnel, which was reflected internationally.

"Next week the Rotunda are to have a meeting to address how they can ensure they have cover at weekends," he said.