Three buildings near Mount Carmel Hospital have been identified and reconstruction work started with a view to having mentally ill children separated from adult patients by the end of this year.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health Chris Fearne was answering a number of parliamentary questions by Opposition health spokesman Claudio Grech.

He had been asked why mentally ill children were still being accommodated in adult wards at Mount Carmel, and whether they could be kept at Mater Dei Hospital while the three buildings were being made ready.

Dr Fearne said some of these children needed psychiatric help and others had behavioural difficulties, and in many cases the Health Department needed the support of other ministries.

He said the government was keeping its promises on the issue, which Mr Grech himself had described as one of long standing which the previous administration had done nothing about.

Dr Fearne had initially confirmed that two 14-year-olds had been kept for a time in an adult ward at Mount Carmel outside the Young People’s Unit. He said this had been done on the advice of the con-sultant involved.

Answering another question by Mr Grech, Dr Fearne confirmed that a patient at Mount Carmel Hospital had escaped from the seclusion ward on July 5.

Dr Fearne said the incident was under investigation by a three-member board and the report was expected on July 28.

He said it would be imprudent to pre-empt the report but pointed out that at the time of the incident there had been three nurses attending to four patients, meaning it was not a question of lack of staff.