Mayo adult mental health unit 'not adequately staffed' - report
The adult mental health unit at Mayo University Hospital is not adequately staffed.
That's according to a report by the Mental Health Commission following an annual inspection.
The inspector cited seven high risk non-compliances with the regulations on individual care plan, general health, privacy, premises, staffing, the rules governing the use of selection, the code of practice on admission, transfer and discharge.
The reported outlined: "The approved centre was not adequately staffed.
"The numbers of staffing were not sufficient to meet resident needs.
"An occupational therapy post became vacant in April 2024. This post had been approved by the PMCG.
"However at the time of inspection in October this post had not received approval at an executive level.
"The mandatory training statistics provided to the inspection team indicated all staff had not completed mandatory training.
"The approved centre was transitioning from an in-reach to in-patient model of care.
"The in-reach model required medical and health and social care professionals from the treating teams to visit the approved centre and provide care and treatment to any resident from that sector or specialist team.
"These teams were supported by staff who worked directly in the approved centre, namely nursing staff, one full time occupational therapist and additionally a senior psychologist working directly in the AMHU two days per week.
"Plans were underway to transition to two full inpatient consultant-led teams, where residents would transfer temporarily to those teams for care and treatment for the duration of their admission."
The report highlighted the fact the risk of overcapacity remained an issue for the approved centre.
"The approved centre notified the Mental Health Commission of one occasion of overcapacity.
"The centre has a proactive capacity escalation protocol which was implemented at 90% occupancy.
"Minutes from the area management meeting in August 2024 reported that the approved centre had been “very busy with 90 to 100% occupancy and regular implementation of overcapacity escalation protocol” was in place."