FAMILY members of Muckamore Abbey Hospital patients offered to help out on wards on Christmas Day, it has emerged.
Leaked minutes reveal that "options" have been considered to "provide access for relatives to hospital facilities" on Wednesday after an offer was put forward by a "family representative" to lend support during a staffing crisis.
During a private meeting held last month, a senior official from the Department of Health insisted that while relatives should not feel pressured, any additional support on Christmas Day "would be gratefully received".
The Co Antrim hospital is at the centre of the biggest PSNI investigation of its kind into alleged patient abuse, with 40 staff suspended and four people arrested. A further 40 members of the facility's 250 strong nursing workforce have either quit or retired since January.
Chronic nursing shortages led to the "temporary" closure of the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) four days before Christmas last year. It has never re-opened.
The November minutes state: "A family representative suggested that some family members might be willing and available to help out at Muckamore if that would be of help. This offer was welcomed and it was agreed that a communication should be issued to family members advising that any additional support they were able to provide would be gratefully received."
But a nursing chief last night warned that relatives should not be used as a "substitute for care".
Pat Cullen, director of the Royal College of Nursing, who has written to the Belfast trust about "unsafe" staffing levels at Muckamore, told the The Irish News that the hospital continues to rely heavily on agency nurses - with the majority not being specialist learning disability nurses.
"We very much support families being able to be with their loved ones in hospital on Christmas Day, that's really appropriate. But what they must not be is a substitute for care, that would be concerning to us," she said.
"This should be provided by a nursing workforce who are expert at providing care for people with a learning disability.
"We're also aware that 70 per cent of agency nurses do not come from a learning disability background and are instead from a mental health background.
"Agency staff can leave without notice, they're also rotated around different wards and add less permanency - many agency staff are back home in England for Christmas and are unable to fulfil shifts."
Last Friday, the health watchdog issued a statement saying it was satisfied that staffing levels at the scandal-hit Co Antrim hospital were now safe following critical inspections earlier this year.
However, the minutes from Muckamore Departmental Assurance Group (MDAG) reveal serious concerns about the nursing complement given the rocketing number of suspensions.
The MDAG which is made up of the most senior officials from the Department of Health, trusts, Public Health Agency, was set up over four months ago in response to the mounting concerns about the future of the hospital. Two family representatives also sit on it.
Francis Rice, who has been appointed by the health service to head up a major governance nursing review into Muckamore, was also present at the November 27 meeting and "expressed concerns" about the "capacity to maintain safe staffing levels at the hospital in the medium term".
Mr Rice said that while there were "indications" that safe staffing was "sustainable" during the Christmas holidays, he noted "potential difficulties in maintaining services in the event of any increase in levels of sick leave, any further staff suspensions as a result of the ongoing police investigations and also the ongoing industrial action".
Further suspensions are expected as the police continue to trawl through CCTV footage from other wards.
A further 11 nurses have been recruited from other health trusts to work in the hospital but on a "temporary basis" - after the department offered a 15 per cent pay increase to those willing to re-deploy to the hospital.
The Belfast health trust last night said it continued to liaise with families of patients at Muckamore Abbey Hospital regarding ongoing care.
"Over the Christmas period Muckamore Abbey Hospital will have adequate staffing levels to ensure patient safety across the hospital. The trust is very grateful to all staff for their flexibility and commitment over the Christmas period," a spokesman said.
"Belfast Trust welcomes family involvement in the care of our patients across all services."
