The 33 clinics listed under Private Hospital in Leinster average 3.5 between them. This one is rated 3.2, which is under that. The rating rests on 70 reviews. Clinics here average 290, so read it as a first impression rather than a settled one.
Opening hours
Opening hours not published
Highlights
Accessibility
Wheelchair-accessible entrance
Wheelchair-accessible parking
Wheelchair-accessible toilet
Amenities
Toilet
Who it suits
LGBTQ+ friendly
Transgender safe space
Planning a visit
Appointments recommended
Location
Patient reviews
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NH
I was in St.Pats for 8 weeks just after I had turned 18 - it caused a lot of trauma, had a very negative on my life and have been suffering since.
I just saw another review posted 8 years ago with a very similar story to mine, not surprised at all. The only positive thing about this place is the other patients. Facilities like this are necessary for certain people, but not for most. Passed around between appointments, very eager to put vulnerable people on medication instead of dealing with problems head on. I was pumped full of medication which changed wildly day to day and used drugs for the first time in the garden here with another patient - please, please stay away if you can.
I really hope that something can be done about the state of mental health services in this country. There is plenty of help for the few who need a great deal of care, but almost no help for the many who need a small bit of care.
I beg of you, please take the 1 star reviews seriously. I wish I did before my relative was admitted to this ‘care’ facility.
5 weeks of little to no treatment, a family meeting with a doctor who lost his temper with the patient in front of the family (shout out to Dr Wilson), a complaints procedure that takes 30 working days for a reply, only to be told it’s your word against theirs, a head nurse that tells his patient with low blood pressure to ‘get up present to nurse’s station if you need meds’ (shout out to Philip in the Kilroot ward), doctors and nurses carrying out assessments and therapies via zoom while the patient is paying through the nose to be in the hospital, and a staff force that all have different versions of policies and procedures.
We thought the patient in question was struggling at home; we didn’t even know what struggle was until she was ‘treated’ in this facility.
Of course, the complaints department love to deny all allegations but here are the facts:
- 5 weeks as an inpatient
- by week 3, one attempt made to wean off antidepressants
- by week 4, new medication offered the day before patient was granted weekend leave and blame put on patient for not wanting to change without supervision (addressed in family meeting where family witnessed doctor lose his temper with patient)
- I begin the complaints process as NO FORM OF THERAPY has been offered
- By week 5, one occupational therapy session has taken place
- Family meeting takes place and we are informed there is nothing else they can do for the patient as they need to wait up to 6 months for appointment with psychologist
- Patient is discharged
With the exception of a handful of nurses who are good people in a badly managed and negligent facility, I cannot stress this enough… Stay. Away.
I'm really disappointed by this service. I was seeing a consultant for years and things were fine until he left to go to a different workplace. Following that, all of his patients had to be reallocated to other consultants within the service or opt to find consultants themselves elsewhere. During my outpatient treatment, I was diagnosed with depression, anxiety and ADHD (through an external neurodevelopmental practice) and medicated accordingly.
It took over 10 months for me to have another appointment, and on the day of the consultation I was informed the consultant was sick. I can't fault illness, as this happens. It added another 2 months or so to my wait. I finally saw the consultant and had a 2 hour assessment that was fairly intense, at the end of which I was told that unfortunately they wouldn't be able to prescribe medication that I was previously prescribed for my ADHD (they are restricted substances due to recreational misuse). They also suggested that I might have borderline personality disorder, which feels like a very premature diagnosis following a single session. They suggested group therapy sessions for people with BPD and that another appointment could be arranged with a colleague capable of prescribing ADHD medication. While it's not unheard of for BPD to occur alongside ADHD, the basis of the "diagnosis" was that I didn't have a strong sense of self. Given how rattled I was by the news that I couldn't get the medication I needed to feel "normal" and the real complexity of a question like "what's your identity", I don't think it's a strong basis for that conclusion.
Following the appointment I made a complaint to the medical director and an investigation was conducted to determine why I was assigned to a practitioner that didn't have the qualifications/authority to prescribe ADHD medication when I am a patient that has ADHD and had been receiving medication prior. I also asked for an appointment with a suitable consultant to be arranged at the earliest possible date and for the fee for that consultation to be waived since I'd spent over €200 for the luxury of spilling my guts out to someone only for them to tell me that they can't help me.
The investigation went on for longer than the advised time limit, and the results were as follows: we made a mistake, and we have nobody that can help you, but we hope the consultation you got was helpful.
That's it.
I expressed my disappointment politely, and requested that my consultation fee be returned. That the consultation I got was more damaging than no consultation at all, as I left feeling raw, lost and abandoned. The fee was returned, thankfully, though I did get two letters, that were apparently automated, requesting that I pay my outstanding consultation fee. I ignored these and haven't received any since.
The extra star is in recognition for the treatment I received with my prior consultant. Whilst I was treated politely by all the staff following my latest visit, I'm truly astonished that this service can call itself a leading practitioner in psychiatric care. I'm now on a waiting list for the public service, and it will likely be years before an appointment will become available. If I go to another private service, €200 looks like pocket change. So I'm now in a position where I just have to make do and trudge along as I have been.
I was in & out if this this hospital for over 10 years, 4 different consultants, never got any better only worse.
Finally went to a more reputable place and received a correct diagnosis some years ago and I have never felt better!
This place is supposed to have the best of the best Dr's yet none could accurately diagnose me and therefore I was never receiving proper treatment.
I can see why now looking back, consultants simply do not listen to their patients, and if question anything you are labelled uncooperative or not accepting of your diagnosis. Some of the nurses would agree with me but they also would say that the drs don't listen to them.
St patricks seriously needs to be looked into from an outside source.
No doubt if they changed things up this could be a fantastic place.
Please treat your patients like mature capable human beings and not like children or animals who have no common sense. We deserve respect and sadly I never saw much of that in St patricks.
Absolute hell hole of an institution, (can't call it a hospital). Denied access to 'team' psychologist for 39 days, despite being encouraged to go home at weekends and free to wander the city all day and evening. Psychiatrist argued with me on first interrogation in front of 6 strangers (staff) insisting that I 'should' be taking contraception! Humiliating to have to say REPEATEDLY to strangers why I did not need to be on contraception, essentilly debating my sex life in front of strangers (on my first appointment and in a vulnerable state). Psychiatrist referred to me 3 times as being a 'mishmash' to communicate her take on the biopsychsocial model! whilst rudely interrupting me when I was answering others questions. Psychiatrist typed throughout the 'assessment' and only stopped with a cold and ridiculing manner asking questions which had nothing to do with the one I was answering from another staff member. No option of having the intimidating experience of having less than 6 staff interrogate each Mon morning. Had to wait aprox 4 hours every Mon morning for the once a week review with serveral anxious women lined up staring for hours at a door wondering who would be called in next. It would have been simple to have an allocated time slot, reducing anxiety but they couldn't be bothered arranging a easy managable schedule. I was threatened with being sectioned because I requested a change of consultant! My request to change consultant was completely ignored for a week. The medical director was aware of my complaints about the psychiatrists cold, rude amd clinical manner which he tottally ignored. I walked out of that building like I had parkinsons disease with severe anxiety and badly disturbed vision. I had serious debilitating side effects which were totally dismissed. They never asked one person in my family for consented info to gain a collateral history, an important part of an assessment. They ignored a documented pharmacist warning about a drug I was put on and serious side effects which can be permanently debiltating were ignored. Overall, staff attitude abhorrent. No feedback provided from MDT team. The complaints process is an absolute joke! Lol They do not independently investigate. They 'investigate' themselves. Despite my serious complaints none were taken seriously, no documented evidence of any investigation. Its a pure stone walling process! They are in no hurry to be expedient in progressing care. It is easier for them to have one person in-patient over many weeks/months than being efficient and having more patients in the same time period, ie. me waiting for no valid reason to meet 'team' psychologist for 39 days! This delayed my stay unnecessarily long. No consideration that a person is off work, at significant financial loss and away from family/friends far longer than needed due to delay in assessment. Delivery of a diagnosis was a shambles with totally conflicting info. Advised of diagnosis on my last appointment! (after I asked what was my diagnosis!) Zero opportunity to ask follow up questions for clarity. I'm not at all surprised at some of the sad and horrific reviews below. I'm shocked that there is not public outrage re: what goes on in that place but then again they bank on peoples anxiety about publishing their mental health stuggles (probably why they continue getting away with their maltreatment and stonewalling of serious complaints).
Surprised there is not a group set to support survivors of this institution ?? an option. Hand on heart, I am still recovering from my lengthy traumatising and dehumanising experience at that institution. I laugh at their response to a devastating review on this site, priding themselves in high quality care! and independent investigations into complaints! Disappointed that I have to even 1 star this!
I wish all those in recovery from this place the very best.
I was a remote patient here in July 2020 and would advise caution to anyone seeing treatment here. The psychiatrist I was assigned to, a Dr McManus, showed in the two times I engaged with her remotely in Microsoft teams meetings zero empathy, compassion or basic clinical judgement and she was extremely rude to a family member whom I had asked to be present with me on the second occasion.
I was so unhappy at her approach that having debated going into hospital under her care for a few days I ultimately decided to ask for a change of medical team and get treatment as an outpatient. This was largely because of the delay of three weeks in getting admitted from my initial contact requesting admission. I had also been told by admissions that a change of team was not a normal request so It appeared that to me that another few weeks could be taken off the allotted 100 days on my plan while waiting for a new consultant . I thought it would be wiser to discharge myself and wait for an outpatient appointment so that I would have sufficient days available if I needed to spend an extended period in hospital for the rest of the year.
The response of the Clinical Director to my request was a four line letter advising me to re-engage with my local mental health service. I had sought treatment in SPMHS because my local Day Hospital service had effectively shut down due to the pandemic and I had put the psychiatrist on notice of this. For the 12 days I was a remote patient, my insurer was charged €7,717.44 - the same as a patient who was physically present in the hospital. I don’t know how a facility can justify charging a remote patient the same as an in-patient when a remote patient incurs no catering, cleaning or maintenance costs. I pointed this out to their Finance Department and was informed that SPMHS has the full agreement of their insurance partners for this and that as it received no statutory funding it had to charge for its services.
For a charge of nearly €8,000.00 I had a 40 minute initial phone consultation with a registrar, a ten minute call with a pharmacist, two half hour appointments with the psychiatrist I was assigned to, a phone call with a nurse each day that generally lasted no longer than 10 minutes in which I was asked a series of rote questions, a list of online activities such a pre-recorded lectures most of which you could get for free on YouTube with better reception, a phone call with a social worker for feedback on why I had requested a change of team …that was it.
I don’t have anything positive to say about SPMHS except that the nurses I spoke to were decent – even their administrative staff were incompetent - I was told by one person in administration that she did not know the email address of the person she told me I had to contact to request a change of team so I had to located it myself on their web site. She also told me that the charge per night was €500.00. Subsequently I was informed by their Finance Department that it was €608.18 per night. When the bill was settled by my health insurer six months later I discovered that the charge was €643.12 when I broke down the final amount into 12 nights. By dint of persistent phoning I eventually managed to access treatment on the public system where I was treated with the basic respect, compassion and dignity that had been lacking in St Patricks. I wouldn’t normally write public reviews particularly on such a private matter but I feel so strongly about the way I was treated (particularly during lockdown in the middle of a pandemic) that I am posting it here.
Update: March 2024 – I see my review of 2 years ago 'disappeared' so I am reposting it. I wrote a letter of complaint to the Director at the time and six months later received a reply which was breathtaking in its defensiveness. As this is a private hospital there is no further body to contact about the service such as Hiqua. The only option left is a review on Google. At the end of the day St Patricks is providing a service for a very high price and in my view it was substandard
My sister went in in the worst possible state ever, after almost attempting to take her life, the doctors and receptionist turned to say “oh well if you don’t have €30K or healthcare we can’t do anything” no sympathy no nothing, these are the people who supposedly “look after” our mental health. Absolute joke and I hope they get the taste of the exact same medicine when they’re in need, nasty people working there. All need to be sacked and replaced with robots because even they have more feelings and empathy towards their patients than these stupid people
So called 'doctor' Marie Naughton of the Temple ward. If you are admitted to this hospital you will not be treated by her with dignity and respect. You will be treated with extreme suspicion and hostility in a cold and punitive "medical" model. You will feel and be subjugated. You will be spoken to and treated as if you are not even a human being, as if you are an inanimate object. Your basic human needs, including your sense of security, will be disregarded, neglected, and abused. You'll be met with extreme condescension and will be gaslit and manipulated. Your humanity will be trod upon. You will be systematically dehumanised and your whole sense of self will be shattered. You will be spoken at in such an officious, highhanded manner, you'll feel as if you are back in primary school being spoken to like a child, or being cross examined in the witness box. She has absolutely no understanding of the nuances of people, of how to talk to people, of how to deal with people. I have been left profoundly demoralised and traumatised by this so called human being and it still haunts me to this day. You will be left psychologically, spiritually and psychically damaged. This person uses fear to control people in a very deliberate and calculated manner. The coldness with which I was dealt with by this person was absolutely chilling. I've had warmer, more cordial, and more humane interactions with Gardai, even in bad situations. It is completely unacceptable that anyone would behave like this or treat people like this. The worst "person" I have ever met. Not a shred of humanity. Triggered a deeply dangerous crisis in my whole entire life. Behaves as if having a medical degree means that every thought that enters her head is objective fact and her word is gospel. You'll be judged and your honesty and integrity will be attacked. This person is completely unsuited to this line of work. Anyone as socially inept and lacking in compassion for human beings as this should NEVER be working in psychiatry with severely vulnerable people, particularly with such a backward, punitive, hostile, abusive, medieval mentality. Patronising and alienating. An extremely invidious, hateful woman. A bully. Nurse Ratchet. The entire situation deserves national exposure and needs to be subject to an external review.
I encourage everyone who has had anything like this experience to immediately report this "doctor" to the medical council.
