Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan said he was hopeful the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) would be able to open 12 extra beds “in the near future” to alleviate pressure on the system.
The hospital in Portrane in north Dublin is at full capacity and cannot take any more patients.
O’Callaghan said he was very conscious there were people with serious mental health issues coming before the courts and ending up being sent to prison because there was no capacity at the hospital.
“I have visited the new Central Mental Hospital in Portrane with Minister [Mary] Butler and Minister [Jennifer] Carroll MacNeill – it’s a fantastic facility, in terms of being a modern forensic hospital,“ he said. “My priority is to ensure that some further beds there are opened up and available.
“I’m engaging with Minister Butler and Minister Carroll MacNeil. In respect to that, I hope to see more beds [become] available in the near future. I’m hoping that we can open up possibly 12 beds in the near future there, and I think that will alleviate a lot of pressure on the system.”
O’Callaghan was responding to media questions following a case at Cork Circuit Criminal Court last week in which a judge said she was “hamstrung” in the case of a man charged with criminal damage but deemed medically unfit to plead in the case.
Judge Helen Boyle said Prof Gautam Gulati, a consultant psychiatrist attending Cork Prison, had assessed Patrick Sibanyoni (58) as suffering from a psychotic illness, most likely schizophrenia, which is a mental disorder within the terms of the Mental Health Act 2001.
The judge also noted Gulati did not believe Sibanyoni could improve while in prison and that his condition was deteriorating. Gulati believed Sibanyoni needed in-patient treatment to help him improve to the point where he could give instructions to his legal team.
The judge made an order to send Sibanyoni to the Central Mental Hospital, but the hospital was unable to accept him, and he ended up being sent back to Cork Prison. The judge requested that a medical officer from the hospital attend court.
Clinical director of the CMH Dr Brenda Wright told the court the reason the hospital was unable to accept Sibanyoni was that all 100 male beds and 11 female beds at the hospital were occupied.
She said that in addition to being at full capacity, the hospital had a list of another 38 people awaiting admission, including eight people in homicide cases who were deemed not fit to plead due to their mental condition, and Sibanyoni could not get priority ahead of them.
Wright said the hospital was not like the prisons as they cannot take someone if there is no bed available. “This morning, we do not have a bed available for Patrick Sibanyoni or anyone else on the waiting list,” she said.
The lack of space at the Central Mental Hospital was also raised in the Dáil this month by Cork South Central Social Democrat TD Pádraig Rice on a foot of an RTÉ Prime Time Investigates programme which highlighted the lack of capacity in the system.
Rice told the Dáil that the waiting time for a space to become available at the hospital was seven months, which was “an utter disgrace”.
“We saw people [in the Prime Time Investigates programme] with severe and enduring mental health difficulties subjected to degrading treatment and even dying in custody. These vulnerable people require care and compassion, not a cold prison cell,” Rice said.