Around 30 people attended a vigil, in appalling weather, on Friday 20th December, at the former addiction treatment centre at Merlin Park Hospital in Galway. The centre was burnt down earlier this year, and the HSE is proposing to move the service to the psychiatric unit in University Hospital Galway (UHG).
The psychiatric unit at UHG is already overcrowded especially since the closure of mental health services in Ballinasloe and the downgrading of Roscommon Hospital. A psychiatric unit is also not a suitable location for an addiction treatment service. Most people who use the addiction treatment service would not consider their problems a psychiatric issue and would be less inclined to attend the service if it was located in the psychiatric unit. The service in Merlin Park had been there for 27 years, providing an excellent service.
People Before Profit representative Kiran Emrich said
'The HSE move is part of widespread cutbacks to services, with services being downgraded and centralised in main hospitals without increasing capacity of the main hospital. Its just going to lead to increased waiting lists, poorer services and poorer health."
Now a combination of service users, students from NUI Galway Students for a Sensible Drug Policy society and local people have come together to demand the service is retained in Merlin Park and that the centre is rebuilt. The vigil was the first event held by the campaign with a second vigil taking place on the 20th January.
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