Muckamore: Patient 'spent years in hospital unnecessarily'
- Published
Muckamore Abbey Hospital is the subject of a major inquiry into allegations that staff abused vulnerable patients
A man with a mild learning disability who spent 13 years at Muckamore Abbey Hospital has said he was ready to be discharged years before he finally was resettled in the community.
The patient was referred to as P76 to protect his identity.
They are one a small number of former patients who have given evidence to the inquiry into abuse at the County Antrim facility.
He finally left the hospital in 2011 and has successfully rebuilt his life.
He has a family of his own now and he is getting married.
P76 painted a mixed picture of staff in the hospital, describing some as professional, providing a good standard of care; however, others did not.
'Kicked in the stomach'
He recalled seeing staff using restraint and control techniques.
On one occasion, he alleged that members of staff bent his arms and dragged him along the ground to the seclusion room.
He said one member of staff kicked him in the stomach.
"I felt I couldn't complain or ask for treatment because I wouldn't be believed."
After one incident involving another patient, P76 was put in a seclusion room.
He was held for eight hours, and was forced to urinate in the corner as a nurse refused to take him to the bathroom.
"The seclusion room was like a cell, there was no fresh air and no windows. It was disgusting and smelt like urine," he said.
He also said he witnessed the ill-treatment of other patients.
He told the inquiry he saw a member of staff grab a patient by the throat, during an argument over Rangers and Celtic football teams.
He said he made a complaint but nothing was ever done, as far as he was aware.
P76, who now has a daughter and is getting married, was admitted to Muckamore Abbey Hospital in 1998 and left in 2011.
He described a long and complicated resettlement process.
"For more than three-and-a-half years, I was a voluntary patient at Muckamore.
"The resettlement process was taking so long, I contacted the Law Centre and an advocacy service.
"I became so frustrated that I told the nurses and a doctor that I would just walk out and never come back.
"I feel my treatment was complete a long time before I left Muckamore. I believe there are a number of patients who are there too long... I believe Muckamore should be shut down."
'Fear in her eyes'
On Tuesday afternoon, the injury also heard from a woman who said she "could see the fear" in her late daughter's eyes following an alleged assault by a member of staff at Muckamore Abbey Hospital.
She said her daughter claimed a nurse "grabbed her by the arm and twisted it up her back" telling her "you think you are somebody special but you're not".
The woman told the inquiry she was upset but that her daughter told her "don't worry, you should see what she did to the other girl" who tried to intervene.
The patient known as P103 had been diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder and had been admitted to Muckamore on three occasions between 2004 and 2011.
Patient 103's mother said she received a telephone call a few days after she learned about the incident and was told the staff member would be re-trained.
P103 who also had alcohol dependency problems later moved into supported living accommodation.
She died in January 2023 aged 49.
Significant delay
Earlier, the chairman of the Muckamore Abbey Hospital Inquiry gave an update on how the inquiry is proceeding.
Evidence from patients will finish in the week of 9 October, with members of staff starting to give evidence the following week.
Tom Kark KC also warned of a "significant" delay to the inquiry's work involving patient records after judicial review proceedings were launched by a relative of a patient.
He added: "While making no comment on the merits or otherwise of the judicial review challenge, the reality is that the Inquiry's work with regard to the analysis of patient records is now subject to a significant delay, because while that litigation is ongoing it has not been possible to receive any of the requested records from the Trust."