Northern Ireland

£12 million psychiatric unit that was to signal new era in care subject to two whistleblower probes

Psychiatric nurse Patrick Maguire was jailed for nine months last December for assaulting a mentally ill patient in the Bluestone unit. Picture by Tony Hendron.
Psychiatric nurse Patrick Maguire was jailed for nine months last December for assaulting a mentally ill patient in the Bluestone unit. Picture by Tony Hendron. Psychiatric nurse Patrick Maguire was jailed for nine months last December for assaulting a mentally ill patient in the Bluestone unit. Picture by Tony Hendron.

OPENED in 2008, the modern £12 million 'Bluestone' replaced the old psychiatric unit at Craigavon Area Hospital - and pledged to deliver "best practice" for patients.

While many staff in the new 74-bedded facility have been praised for their care standards, two separate sets of whistleblower allegations relating to poor patient care and staff bullying emerged last year - and led to interventions by the Department of Health.

An internal investigation took place into the first set of allegations - relating to 'Willow Ward' - which included inappropriate physical handling of patients, the "absence" of a 'no force first' culture and poor management of ward staff.

However, a lack of evidence, including the names of those affected as well as times and dates of alleged incidents, meant investigators found it "challenging" to substantiate claims about the "harsh treatment of patients", according to correspondence seen by The Irish News.

Despite the limited material, it was still discovered that support for newly created 'peer support roles' - staff who had previously suffered from mental health problems but were in recovery and used their 'lived experience' to help patients - had "not been handled appropriately". Immediate steps were taken to address this by the Southern health trust, the correspondence adds.

Last December, the unit came under the spotlight when a Bluestone psychiatric nurse was jailed for nine months after he punched a patient three times and broke his nose.

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Patrick Maguire, from Tollymore Brae in Newcastle, admitted causing actual bodily harm.

Meanwhile, a 2017 RQIA watchdog report on the 10-bedded Rosebrook Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) - the ward at the centre of the second set of whistleblower allegations - identified failings in its recording systems for when "physical interventions" are used on patients.

"There was no governance oversight on the use of restrictive practices. The frequency of restrictive practices such as physical interventions, seclusion and rapid tranquilisation was not collated." the RQIA inspectors stated.

During a follow-up assessment months later, it emerged the issue still hadn't been resolved. The regulator noted that "some progress" had been made and the trust had made contact with an IT consultant to improve the reporting system.

A trust spokesman said its monitoring ability was "enhanced" in May 2018.