Patients claim UHG's €20m adult psychiatric unit is ‘like a prison’
Galway City Tribune - Users of Galway’s new psychiatric unit claim it is ‘far worse’ for recovery from mental health problems than the dilapidated building it replaced.
Patients of the facility at University Hospital Galway (UHG) say they feel isolated, demeaned and dehumanised in the new unit.
Lack of sleep due to the noisiness of the new inpatient facility, and a reduction in human contact with staff since it opened are chief among the concerns. A ‘draconian’ no-smoking policy where inpatients and visitors are ‘stopped and searched’ for tobacco, and where those caught smoking outside the unit are ‘punished’, is also causing distress.
“It is more like a prison than a hospital where you go to recover and get better,” one patient said. Another service user said: “It is not conducive to positive mental health and mental well-being.”
Dozens of official complaints from service users, their families or advocates have been lodged with hospital authorities, the Galway City Tribune understands. The old psychiatric unit was deemed ‘not fit for purpose’ and its replacement – opened last summer – cost €20 million.
“Structurally it wasn’t great – but it was better than this,” one patient added. This is a preview only. To read further coverage of this, see this week's Galway City Tribune. Buy a digital edition of this week's paper here.