{"id":969307,"date":"2026-05-18T18:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/969307\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T18:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T18:39:14","slug":"medication-crushed-into-patients-food-without-pharmacy-oversight-inspection-finds-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/969307\/","title":{"rendered":"Medication crushed into patient\u2019s food without pharmacy oversight, inspection finds \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Medication was crushed into a patient\u2019s food without pharmacy oversight at an inpatient mental health<\/a> centre in Co Tipperary<\/a>, an inspection found.<\/p>\n

Haywood Lodge, which provides psychiatric care for adults in Clonmel<\/a>, received a rate of 84 per cent compliance overall when inspected last August but had one critical area of noncompliance in relation to medication.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no access to a pharmacist to review the type of preparation for crushed medications in the approved centre,\u201d an inspection report from the Mental Health Commission<\/a> (MHC) said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo date there is no agreement for on-site pharmacy, yet the service continues to prescribe crushed medications without having pharmacy oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one instance, medication \u201cwas given to a resident in their food and drink, which went against best practices, but was deemed necessary due to capacity issues\u201d.<\/p>\n

Since the inspection took place last year efforts have been made to rectify the situation, the report said. A pharmacist started working in the service on March 9th and a review of prescribing of high-dose antipsychotic medication has taken place.<\/p>\n

The report on Haywood Lodge was one of 14 inspection reports published by the MHC on Monday. The rate of compliance ranged from 69 per cent to 90 per cent.<\/p>\n

Avonmore and Glencree Units, facilities for over-65s at Newcastle Hospital in Co Wicklow, had the lowest compliance rate. Nine \u201chigh-risk\u201d examples of noncompliance were found when the facility was inspected last August, including issues with CCTV use.<\/p>\n

The report noted that, while the use of CCTV was disclosed to residents and their representatives, such systems in mental health facilities \u201cshould be incapable of recording or storing a resident\u2019s image\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Patient on trolley in hospital corridor for 15 hours felt \u2018invisible\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The report continued: \u201cHowever, CCTV cameras were found to be actively recording … The residents\u2019 privacy and dignity were not appropriately respected, as three closed circuit television cameras recorded residents\u2019 images.\u201d<\/p>\n

This area of noncompliance has since been addressed and a security company confirmed on January 5th that CCTV in internal areas \u201cdoes not have the capacity to record\u201d, the report noted. <\/p>\n

One critical area of noncompliance and three high-risk non-compliances were found at the Linn Dara child and adolescent mental health inpatient facility located on the Cherry Orchard Hospital<\/a> campus in Ballyfermot, Dublin 10. This service, which provides treatment for under-18s, was inspected last September.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most concerning issue related to safety in the approved centre where faults in fire doors were observed across the approved centre. While other fire safety practices were implemented in the approved centre, there was no process to inspect or repair fire doors,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

A full inspection of all fire doors within the centre will be undertaken to identify any damage which needs to be fixed, the report added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Medication was crushed into a patient\u2019s food without pharmacy oversight at an inpatient mental health centre in Co…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":969308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4315],"tags":[116113,105,3392,4326,218,176112,41590,16,15],"class_list":["post-969307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-clonmel","tag-health","tag-health-wellness","tag-medication","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-health-commission","tag-tipperary","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116597041864492138","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=969307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/969308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=969307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=969307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=969307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}