UP TO 90 per cent of asylum seekers become depressed after spending just six months in the Republic as a result of the cramped living conditions they have to endure and being denied the right to work, a Kerry-based GP has claimed.
Dr Bernard Ruane told the annual conference of the Irish Medical Organisation in Killarney yesterday that often whole families of asylum seekers had to share one room in a hotel and were not allowed take up apprenticeships or to work, which made life extremely restrictive for them.
"The fact that they are not allowed work, attend courses or take up apprenticeships means they become very, very depressed and they really get feelings of worthlessness . . . I talked to a good few colleagues and they reckon there is a 90 per cent depression rate in these people when they've been here for six months," he said.
Delegates passed a motion calling on the Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan and the Minister for Integration Conor Lenihan to review the rights of asylum seekers to work or attend courses, agreeing the current system was causing them considerable additional distress.
They also urged the Ministers to review procedures surrounding applications for citizenship, which, Dr Ruane said, were currently far too prolonged. He said people had to be here five years before they could apply for citizenship and it could then take a further 3.5 years to have their application looked at.
The meeting also urged the HSE to compensate doctors assaulted in the course of their duty. Dr Neil Brennan, consultant physician at the Mercy Hospital, Cork, said the motion had been put down following the recent attack on a consultant psychiatrist in Limerick by a disturbed patient. But he said there were also attacks in A&E units, which caused distress and burnout among staff. He said a properly resourced system of risk management should be put in place.
Meanwhile, concern was again expressed by delegates at the length of time patients have to wait on trolleys in some A&E units. Dr Cillian Twomey, a consultant geriatrician based in Cork, said it was "utterly unacceptable that the trolley disaster is a continuing reality for many parts of the country".
Some patients had to wait days to be properly accommodated, he said, which could not be condoned in a wealthy country.
"And it defies belief to me that at senior HSE level there could be pronouncements to the effect that we can take another 4,000 beds out of the system, when quite clearly for some parts of the country there is a capacity deficit that needs to be addressed," he said.
Delegates also agreed to put pressure on Minister for Health Mary Harney to make an order to the effect that HSE board meetings would in future be held in public.
Dr Christine O'Malley, a consultant geriatrician in Nenagh, said under the old health board systems, managers had to account for decisions taken in front of health professionals and the media. Now the only record of what happened at HSE board level were minimal minutes of meetings, which weren't available for months afterwards.