Limerick West deputy and Fine Gael mental health spokesperson, Dan Neville, has said that the tragic stabbings of two doctors at St Anne’s Day Hospital in Limerick last week highlights the need for more and better mental health services

Two members of staff at the facility—psychologist, Catherine Burns and psychiatrist, Dr Ananth Pullela—were attacked by a patient with a knife on January 17, leaving both seriously injured.

St Anne’s Clinic, scene of last week’s stabbing incident. Picture: Keith Wiseman

Dr Pullela remains in “stable condition” at Cork University Hospital where he is being treated for multiple injuries while his colleague was released from the Mid Western Regional Hospital last Friday.

Thirty-two year old Anthony McMahon of Raheen Square in Ballinacurra, Weston was charged with two counts of assault causing harm at Limerick District Court and will appear at another hearing on January 24.

Deputy Neville said that he has raised many issues, including that of a “secure” bed shortage “several times in the Dáil and with the Fianna Fáil Government most recently just last month”.

He said that the lack of services was “a symptom of ongoing Government under-funding of mental health services that puts lives at risk”.

He added that while this was not a direct factor in the St Anne’s case, it feeds into the wider issue of mental health resources—which make up only 7% of the health budget.

A HSE spokeswoman emphasised that there were beds available in the Acute Psychiatric Unit in the Mid Western Regional Hospital at the time of the attack and “treatment of patients and the settings in which it is provided “is a matter of clinical judgement”.