St Columba’s deemed ‘not fit for purpose’
THE Mental Health Unit at St Columba’s Sligo has been deemed “not fit for purpose.”
That’s according to Area Director of Nursing for Sligo Leitrim Mental Health Services Tomás Murphy.
The HSE employee was giving evidence as to the Governance, staff training, admissions procedure and physical infrastructure of the unit at the inquest into the death of Karl Collins at Sligo courthouse on Monday.
A ligature audit of the building was carried out in May of this year and found 365 ligature points, 16 per cent of which were deemed ‘ high’.
He told the court that to date, no high ligature points remain within the unit.
The court heard Karl Collins was found unresponsive inside the attic of his room by nursing staff at 1.30pm Monday 3rd April 2017.
Mr Murphy told the court how a report in 2014 had recommended that the ligature anchor points be addressed and remedied at St Columba’s.
An internal audit was carried out in 2015 and the HSE hired an expert company in the UK to do another external audit.
When barrister for the Collins family Mr Keith O’Grady BL asked the witness why the hatch in the late Karl Collins’ bedroom was never identified as a ligature anchor, Mr Murphy replied: “I don’t know.”
“They didn’t see the hatch,” replied Mr Murphy.
He said the UK experts spoke about sloping the wardrobes and that was done, but the trap door up to the attic was not considered.
“The remedial measure required either the bolting of the wardrobe or the hatch...why was that not done after 2016?” he asked the witness.
“I can’t answer that,” replied Mr Murphy.
“In the external audit, did nobody ever say you should bolt that hatch up?” asked Mr O’Grady.
“No,” replied Mr Murphy. The jury of two women and five men were told the hatch to the attic was bolted shut within five days after Mr Collins’ death in April 2017.
“The day after Karl Collins died there was a directive by Teresa Dykes that all hatches were to be bolted up.
“It was done within five days,” said Mr Murphy.
He added that 32 per cent of the ligature anchor points had been eliminated by now.
Mr O’Grady asked why it took until 2018 for them to be removed.
The nursing manager replied that it required “capital expenditure” on windows and sanitary ware was “very expensive”, citing an estimation of ¤4million for refurbishments costs, a figure suggested by a company.
“Am I right in thinking that the unit is just not fit for purpose?” asked Mr O’Grady.
“The report would suggest so,” said Mr Murphy, adding that a new unit at Sligo Hospital is planned.
It also emerged that it was not possible to access the deceased’s case notes from 2011 at the weekend.
However Mr Murphy insisted there was still enough nurses on duty at weekends.