Mental health services have no place at the “Victorian” Mount Carmel Hospital, according to the psychiatrists’ association, which said the place had been unfit to provide treatment for several years.
The Maltese Association of Psychiatry (MAP) was reacting to comments made by the chairman of Mental Health Services Anton Grech to the State broadcaster.
Mount Carmel was not adequate for modern treatment and parts of it were condemned, Dr Grech noted, adding however that no patient was in danger.
The comments came in the wake of shocking testimony given to a parliamentary committee last week by former chief operating officer Paul Dalli, who spoke about patients showering next to each other in the nude and in freezing cold water in wintertime, while avoiding dangerously cracked tiles.
The hospital, he said, had been left to rot into disrepair, a state of affairs that has, in fact, long been flagged up by the Mental Health Commissioner.
The association has said it supports plans to phase out the “unsafe and dilapidated” hospital and to develop a new acute psychiatric facility. It said the new provision should be located within or connected to Mater Dei Hospital.
There should be a plan to shift the in-patient budget towards adequately staffed community mental health services providing evidence-based mental health interventions.
The new provision should be located within or connected to Mater Dei
With the development of a new psychiatry hospital and community services, it was no longer appropriate to provide psychiatric services from Mount Carmel, the association said. Otherwise there would be a two-tiered mental health service that would undermine efforts to bust myths about mental disorders. The stigma associated with Mount Carmel was insurmountable, it said.
“MAP believes that Mount Carmel Hospital is a beautiful 1860s Victorian building which authorities could repurpose and be used for alternative arrangements, however one which has no connection to mental health services.”
In his 2014 report, Mental Health Commissioner John Cachia had said that Mount Carmel and the Gozo mental health wards needed extensive investment for proper refurbishment. Some wards had leaking roofs and damp walls and some bathrooms needed urgent upgrading.
In 2017, he noted that corrective action at Mount Carmel was long overdue, after architects declared several wards to be unsafe for patients and staff.
Contacted yesterday, Dr Cachia said his office had continued to follow up issues linked to the physical environment of mental health institutions.
The most recent detailed assessment was carried out in November and December of 2018. The findings are still being evaluated.
“Throughout the early months of this year we made several representations with Mount Carmel Hospital management urging them to address identified shortcomings without undue delay in the best interest of patient and staff safety and welfare,” Dr Cachia said.
In mid-May, during a meeting with the entire top management of Mount Carmel, Dr Cachia and his team were given details of the updated refurbishment work plan with milestones expected to be reached in 2019.
In the interest of patient rights, his office would be regularly monitoring the implementation of this work plan, he added.
On Tuesday, mental health organisation Richmond Foundation demanded the closure of Mount Carmel Hospital "for all psychiatric conditions".
In a statement it said the hospital was "unfit to treat patients" and has been in such a state for several years.
"Having consulted numerous clients of the Foundation we have the certainty to say that even though the care in the hospital may be good, the building is not conducive to recovery."