Concerns raised after overcrowding at waterford mental health unit

Patients admitted to the south east's main acute mental health unit are being placed in corridors due to overcrowding

The unit in Waterford University Hospital has to cater for the needs of patients in Wexford and Waterford. Because of the overcrowding, a sixteen year old girl had to spend the night in a chair at the adult unit of Waterford University Hospital's Department of Psychiatry. According to a report in The Journal.ie five children had to be transferred to the adult unit since the start of the year due to a lack of beds. The mental health unit has a licence to cater for forty four patients at any one time. There was uproar in 2010 when County Wexford's main psychiatric unit at Saint Senan's Enniscorthy closed with patients since then having to go to the facility in Waterford. An independent report by the Mental Health Commission found that the mental health unit in Waterford University Hospital did not respect the privacy of patients there. The Commission is due to publish another report on the unit shortly.