A SECOND examination of fractures among patients at two mental health facilities in Co Tipperary has exonerated staff. The report found that there had been no evidence that injuries sustained were non-accidental, a local Senator has claimed.
Labour Senator Phil Prendergast said yesterday she had seen the report prepared by UK-based consultant orthopaedic surgeon Jai Shanker. Mr Shanker found there was no evidence 19 fractures sustained by 18 patients between 2006 and 2009 were caused deliberately.
The patients with the fractures were being treated at St Luke’s Hospital and St Michael’s acute psychiatric unit in Clonmel, both of which have been earmarked for closure.
She called on the HSE to publish the Shanker report immediately, saying it had been completed last August.
“Patient welfare is the most important issue here.
“But staff at St Michael’s and St Luke’s have every reason to feel aggrieved that the HSE has sat on the Shanker report for 10 months,” she said.
“These people have been living under a cloud of suspicion since the issue of patient injuries first arose in 2004,” she added.
A report from the State’s Mental Health Commission (MHC) last year also commented on fractures sustained by 19 patients at the two facilities over an 18-month period between 2002 and 2004. It did not find evidence the fractures among residents during that period were non-accidental.
However, it said environmental defects were not properly addressed, increasing the risk of injury to patients.
The MHC inquiry – launched following concerns over the number of fractures suffered by residents at the hospitals – found there were widespread failures to provide proper standards of care to residents.
The HSE did not comment yesterday on whether it will publish the Shanker report.