Shame over Loman's €36m that never benefited patients

The report of the Mental Health Inspectorate into conditions at St. Loman's Hospital in Mullingar makes sorry reading.It describes two wards as being "dilapidated, desolate and depressing" and two others as being in need of "immediate" refurbishment.There was praise in the Inspectorate's report for staff at the hospital, but despite the best efforts of staff, patients are living in appalling conditions.In fact, said the report, the single bedrooms in St. Edna's "were unfit for human habitation". It is ironic that people who are least able to fight for their own rights, and probably more in need of modern and cheerful surroundings, are those who seem to be at the bottom of the pile when it comes to healthcare.What makes the report on conditions at St. Loman's even more scandalous is the fact that the HSE received some €36m five years ago, when the extensive landholdings around St. Loman's were sold off but not a penny of that came back to St. Loman's Hospital, or to the midland area's mental health services, as was supposed to have happened.It was also revealed in the Inspectorate report that a capital development plan was prepared for St. Loman's - but because the income from the land sale never came back to the HSE, that work didn't take place.Now, that capital plan is redundant, with the announcement by the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy John Maloney that all outdated and unsuitable psychiatric facilities would be closed "within the next three years".For some of the 115 patients at St. Loman's Hospital, the institution represents home - although it may well be a home that none of us would wish to ever have to live in, nor have any of our family members live in, given the description in this week's report. Raising the issue of St. Loman's in Seanad Éireann last March, Senator Nicky McFadden stated that some of the patients at St. Loman's had been living there for more than fifty years, and "do not know anywhere else"."One gentleman from Naas has nowhere to go as he has been there for so long," she stated, as she called for action on the provision of suitable alternative accommodation for the patients, in line with the "Vision for Change" report on Mental Health care policy.If the hospital is to close, surely a three year timeframe is too long.It's already almost a year since the Westmeath Examiner announced that closure was on the cards. Deputy Mary Wallace, responding to Senator McFadden in the senate, said that when Deputy John Moloney visited St. Loman's Hospital to check on progress, he was assured that the "reconfiguration of the St. Loman's campus" was "the single highest priority for the HSE local office".He was also, she said, informed that a development control plan for the hospital had been finalised, and that this provided for appropriate accommodation for all those patients still remaining there.However, in the meantime, it appears, patients will still live in dismal and depressing conditions.Not something likely to improve anyone's mental health.