This article is from page 36 of the 2013-12-31 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 36 JPG
THE Health Services Executive came under fire in April amid mounting claims that there’s now a growing drink and drugs problem at the Acute Unit at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Ennis.
Controversy has erupted within the Clare health services after a patient and a nursing representative confirmed to The Clare People that drink and drugs represent an ongoing “problem” at the 38-bed unit that houses psychiatric patients. The Clare People has learned that patient and nursing fears about drink and drugs being smuggled into the unit by visitors has led to the gardaí being drafted in for illegal substance searches.
“There are people smoking cannabis in the Acute Unit in Ennis,” one patient from within the unit told The Clare People on Monday. “There is a garden adjacent to the unit and a number of patients were offering drugs to other patients.
“There was also alcohol being consumed – wine and cider that’s being offered to patients. The doors open from the garden into the ward and the smell of the cannabis comes in when the doors were opened. This has been reported to the nurses by two different patients,” the female patient added.
“Drugs have been an issue in the Acute Unit,” admitted Denis Meehan, a local representative of the Psychiatric Nurses Association. “The staff in the unit have done their absolute best to curtail this problem, but it’s very hard to do anything with it. Staff have called gardaí on occasion and patients have been searched. “In every prison in Ireland there are drugs, so you would expect them to be in the Acute Unit in Ennis. If this is reported to us, all we can do is search people and that’s what we have done,” he added.