HSE denies psychiatric patient restrained with handcuffs
A senior HSE official is understood to be investigating a claim that a psychiatric patient exhibiting ‘challenging behaviour’ at University Hospital Galway was restrained with handcuffs and forced to sleep on the floor.
Staff in the psychiatric unit are “very, very unhappy” with the way in which a male patient was restrained “like a dog on the floor” and had to sleep on the floor of the unit one night last week after being brought to the unit in handcuffs.
The HSE has insisted that no such form of restraint has ever been used inside the unit.
Galway TD Colm Keaveney – Fianna Fáil’s Spokesperson on Mental Health – said frontline staff at UHG have made him aware of instances where patients have been restrained and sedated when overcrowding occurs in the 45-bed unit.
When pressed, he said he believed the form of restraint used was cable ties or handcuffs when patients display ‘challenging behaviour’.
The HSE responded: “We refute Deputy Keaveney’s claims that staff of the psychiatric unit restrain patients using handcuffs, shackles and cable ties. A robust, evidence-based policy is in place for the safe and dignified treatment of service users who present challenging behaviour.”
It’s understood that Jim Ryan, Head of Operations at the HSE’s Mental Health Division, was in the unit yesterday (Thursday) and last Friday.
A source at the hospital said they believe Mr Ryan is at the unit because the HSE is “greatly disturbed” by the claims about patient restraint.
For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune