{"id":634655,"date":"2026-08-13T08:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T08:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/634655\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T08:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T08:21:14","slug":"hse-began-enhanced-support-and-oversight-of-bloomfield-following-patient-care-concerns-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/634655\/","title":{"rendered":"HSE began \u2018enhanced\u2019 support and oversight of Bloomfield following patient care concerns \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Health Service Executive<\/a> has \u201cenhanced\u201d its support and oversight of a south Dublin mental health<\/a> hospital after an independent investigation report on mistreatment of patients at the facility was published by The Irish Times.<\/p>\n

Late last year, an external report<\/a> on a whistleblower\u2019s claims found some residents at Bloomfield Hospital in Rathfarnham<\/a> were left soiled for an \u201cunacceptable period\u201d, had been \u201cslapped\u201d on the leg, sworn at and threatened with an injection to improve co-operation with staff.<\/p>\n

There were 11 trust-in-care reports relating to 17 patients in July 2025, and the hospital, which is owned by the Quakers in Ireland, took immediate action \u2013 including internal and external reviews and disciplinary proceedings \u2013 upon receipt of the allegations.<\/p>\n

However, the hospital did not inform the HSE, the Department of Health<\/a>, the regulator or the Minister for Health of the concerns until the report was being published by The Irish Times.<\/p>\n

Brian Higgins, assistant national director at HSE adult mental health services, said that on the night the articles were published the HSE began a \u201cformal support process which has remained in place fortnightly since\u201d.<\/p>\n

Senior HSE officials and senior hospital management continue to attend these \u201cassurance meetings\u201d, with board members of the hospital attending on a \u201cless regular basis\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis collective HSE approach has led to the development of a structured and proactive approach which has been put in place to ensure patient safety and regulatory compliance,\u201d he said in response to a parliamentary question from Social Democrats<\/a> mental health spokesman Liam Quaide.<\/p>\n

According to Higgins, the HSE \u201cformally\u201d put an enhanced support structure in place in late May to provide \u201cclear governance and assurance\u201d. <\/p>\n

Bloomfield retains decision-making authority, he said, but there is \u201chigh-intensity oversight\u201d and \u201cadvisory input\u201d by the HSE.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Inside Bloomfield Hospital: what investigators found after whistle blown on patient careOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of this oversight, a senior HSE official has been facilitated to attend on site once a week to support the team in Bloomfield and have in-person insight to the ongoing quality improvement work at the hospital,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In December 2025, Bloomfield Hospital voluntarily closed to admissions; this was subsequently formalised by the Mental Health Commission<\/a> in April as a condition of registration. No admissions have occurred since last year.<\/p>\n

At the end of February, the HSE began an inspection and review of the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis review was carried out by a team of authorised experts appointed by the HSE, two of whom are external to the HSE and one safeguarding expert from within the HSE,\u201d Higgins said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA draft copy of the review was presented to HSE Dublin Midlands and the national office for mental health for review in early July and a final draft is expected in August. The purpose of the report is to identify and understand issues in Bloomfield Hospital and to support rectification of the issues by Bloomfield.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Higgins said the report was not due for external publication, a decision that has been criticised by Quaide.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Inside Bloomfield: The scramble to protect residents after patient care concerns raisedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision to withhold this report from public scrutiny reflects the very worst cultural legacy of the HSE: institutional self-protection, secrecy and a reflex to control information when serious failures are exposed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBloomfield received a 94 per cent compliance rating from the Mental Health Commission only months before serious mistreatment of residents came to light. It is extraordinary that the HSE is now invoking the commission\u2019s own judgment support framework to investigate what went wrong \u2013 and then refusing to publish the result.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Health Service Executive has \u201cenhanced\u201d its support and oversight of a south Dublin mental health hospital after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[275],"tags":[3496,52,18,135,475,2450,474,60,19,17,167,94178,62849],"class_list":["post-634655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-department-of-health","tag-dublin","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-health-service-executive-hse","tag-healthcare","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-health-commission","tag-rathfarnham"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117087232700113337","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}