MHC inspections find ‘high compliance’in 3 centres

Three new Mental Health Commission (MHC) inspection reports note high compliance and  efforts made by management and staff to protect their residents from Covid-19. This included  reconfiguring one building into separate zones to better safeguard especially frail and vulnerable residents, according to the MHC.

The reports are on three of the country’s 66 approved inpatient mental health centres. All inspections were announced due to Covid-19 and each centre scored highly on overall compliance with rules, regulations, and codes of practice.

The three units were Blackwater House outside Monaghan town, Haywood Lodge located on the outskirts of Clonmel town and St Gabriel’s Ward a 20-bed facility located on the grounds of St. Canice’s Hospital in Kilkenny.

“It is important to recognise the work that providers put in since March of last year to protect the people they care for, and we have noted some of these instances in the inspection reports that we have published today,” said the Inspector of Mental Health Services, Dr Susan Finnerty.

“In the case of these centres, this included the introduction of protocols such as visitor restrictions, cleaning regimes, the reconfiguring one building to better shield frail and elderly residents, and the allocation of one area of a ward for the purposes of isolation. While we were confident that these types of safety measures were taking place in centres from ongoing conversations that we were having with centres through our Covid-19 monitoring hub, it was reassuring to verify them at inspection.”