{"id":363253,"date":"2026-03-24T22:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363253\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T22:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:02:08","slug":"hse-must-find-places-for-vulnerable-patients-after-removal-from-uk-hospital-ordered-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363253\/","title":{"rendered":"HSE must find places for vulnerable patients after removal from UK hospital ordered \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The HSE<\/a> must find alternative placements for several vulnerable Irish patients after being unexpectedly told they should be removed from a mental health<\/a> hospital in England due to safety concerns. <\/p>\n

High Court<\/a> president David Barniville, under whose orders some of the patients have been placed at St Andrew\u2019s Healthcare in Northampton, said the decision by the UK<\/a>\u2019s National Health Service (NHS<\/a>) earlier this month came as a \u201cbolt from the blue\u201d to the HSE and the court. <\/p>\n

The court heard the HSE has made inquiries and has identified no health or safety concerns relating to Irish patients.<\/p>\n

In its published letter of March 9th, NHS England told its commissioners to identify alternative placements for inpatients at St Andrew\u2019s. This followed enforcement action against the charity hospital last December on foot of two inspection reports that rated the service as \u201cinadequate\u201d. <\/p>\n

The second report raised \u201csignificant concerns about culture at the organisation and the processes that allow staff to speak up\u201d, NHS England said.<\/p>\n

It said it still did not have adequate assurance that patient safety was improving at the necessary rate. Its concerns about patient safety remained as of March 9th, so it \u201cmust act now to ensure patients receive the care and treatment they deserve\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n

Barniville on Tuesday reviewed the cases of seven Irish patients who have been placed at the hospital on foot of High Court orders secured by the HSE. Patients are generally only placed abroad when their specific needs cannot be met by providers in the State.<\/p>\n

The HSE\u2019s barrister, Paul Brady, said NHS England\u2019s decision came as a \u201cshock\u201d to his client and also appears to have been a surprise to St Andrew\u2019s. He said the HSE believed Irish patients were safe and benefiting from the service. <\/p>\n

The HSE is trying to refer the individuals to other services while simultaneously seeing if they can be part of arrangements being made by NHS England. Brady said the priority since the news broke has been to ensure patients receive continuity of care.<\/p>\n

Despite significant engagement by the HSE, Brady said, it \u201cstill doesn\u2019t understand the specific reasons\u201d for the NHS England decision other than those communicated publicly.<\/p>\n

Although one patient is due to return to Ireland, the judge said the HSE faces a \u201cheadache\u201d trying to source alternative UK placements for the others. He noted the HSE and its solicitor Katharine Kelleher have been working \u201ctirelessly\u201d to address the situation. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe HSE hasn\u2019t even been able to obtain from the NHS what precisely was the reason for its decision,\u201d he said, adding that welfare reports have been issued for some of the Irish patients and there is \u201cno immediate risk\u201d to any of them.<\/p>\n

One of the patient\u2019s mothers told the court through tears that it was \u201cunacceptable\u201d she was first learning of the plans to remove patients from St Andrew\u2019s through the court. <\/p>\n

She questioned why the HSE was following a decision it did not understand and said the service has been home for her son for several years after he was \u201cexported out of Ireland\u201d. <\/p>\n

The judge said no decisions about individual placements have been made and nothing will be done without prior court approval. He is due to receive further updates about the situation in mid-April. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The HSE must find alternative placements for several vulnerable Irish patients after being unexpectedly told they should be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[103,397,1418,396,73,61,60,410,782,303],"class_list":["post-363253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-health-service-executive-hse","tag-healthcare","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-nhs","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}