Virus outbreaks in two key psychiatric wards

HSE mental health staff are battling Covid-19 outbreaks on the psychiatric wards in two large Dublin hospitals and private services have been contacted for support.

The units are located in Tallaght and St James’ hospitals, but are run by the HSE mental health services. The same service runs a unit based in Naas hospital in Kildare and last week the Irish Mail on Sunday reported on a Covid-19 outbreak there also.

A HSE spokeswoman confirmed the outbreaks but she did not say how many patients or staff were ill, only that an outbreak is called when two positive contacts are present. These units are run by the HSE Dublin South, Kildare & West Wicklow Community Healthcare (CHO7) service.

A source familiar with the situation said: ‘Apparently there are no free psychiatric beds available in Dublin and patients may need to be admitted to Waterford or Limerick.’

The HSE spokeswoman did not say which units outside Dublin had been contacted as emergency standby, but said it was normal practice to contact other services when the beds in a unit were full or unavailable.

She said: ‘The HSE is working with all national mental health units as well as private service providers to facilitate capacity and continuation of appropriate care for service users.’

Patients are receiving individual help, she said, to make sure they understand and can cope with the situation as well as the normal Covid supports. All staff and patients have been tested and contact tracing is ongoing. Families or next of kin have been updated by phone by clinical staff working on all three units.

In February, the Mental Health Commission warned that psychiatric in-patient units in Ireland run at 89% capacity even when all units are on stream.