Two thirds of nurses at the State mental health hospital admitted that patients’ specialised care plans were not being followed, according to a report by the Mental Health Commissioner.  

According to Commissioner John Cachia’s annual report, 22 nurses directly involved in Mount Carmel’s ward management completed a detailed questionnaire that revealed the reality facing patients and staff at the maligned State facility. 

The report insists that while patients have a right to receive treatment through a specialised “multidisciplinary care plan”, just over half of nurses (55 per cent) said patients had been given such a care plan. Even fewer (36 per cent) said that these were actually being followed when given. Patients are also meant to be adequately and routinely assessed by professionals regarding the risk they posed to themselves and to others.

Less than half the hospital nurses surveyed (41 per cent) reported that this was being done.

Last week, the Times of Malta reported how a similar survey, conducted with patients and their guardians had also uncovered other previously unknown trends. 

Those surveys had found, among other things, that nearly two in every three legal guardians of mental health patients had no idea what treatment their loved ones required. 

Admission to any institution, the report says, may be considerably stressful, particularly if the patient’s mental state is already compromised at the time, as can often be the case.

The professional provision of information in such situations was vital for building trust and to allay anxieties.

However, when verbal information is provided to a patient on admission they don’t always take it in.

“The whole admissions procedure, particularly for first time clients, may be quite overwhelming and there will always be doubts as to how well any information provided at this stage is processed by the recipient,” the report reads.

Despite this, just over half of the nurses reported that patients were being provided with written information on admission, with even fewer – 45 per cent – saying they provided written information to their family or carers.

Staff were not even sure whose responsibility it was to inform patients of their rights. Two-thirds reported that nursing staff were responsible for providing the information, while 14 per cent of managers said it was a joint responsibility between nurses and medical staff. Another 27 per cent admitted that they did not know. 

Hospital staff were also asked whether they were aware of the existence of a policy on a series of issues ranging from patients being granted leave from the hospital, the use of telephones by patients, the use of the facility’s gardens, and the use of restraints, seclusion and patient searches.

The report found that 41 per cent of nurses did not know whether there was a policy on searching patients and 59 per cent said that if there was one, it was not being followed. 

Around five per cent of nurses did not know if there was a regulation on the use of restraints, but another 23 per cent answered ‘n/a’ when asked about this.

The report warns that the low positive response as to whether there was a hospital policy on the use of the main garden (45 per cent) or ward garden (18 per cent) as well as on telephone use (32 per cent) had implications for patients’ rights.

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