 We'll join us very, very shortly but at mine o'clock it's time for a news update and it's over to Catherine Gaffney. Thanks Greg, good morning. Some patients have been waiting over four years for a hospital procedure according to a leading HSC official. The target is for our patient list to be down to 18 months by December and a year for inpatient procedures. Just under 700,000 people are waiting for one of these consultations at the moment. Tony Canavan, the chief executive of the Sail to Hospital group which covers Donnie Gull, says the targets will be difficult to achieve. There are patients on our waiting list that are waiting in excess of four years currently and the numbers of those patients has increased to this age during the Covid period. The majority of patients on waiting lists are within a two year timeframe, the vast majority, but there are patients that are waiting for three and even four years for appointments and treatments. The HSC chief executive says Ireland and our child and adult mental health services are providing a good level of care for those who need it. A review published this week found 46 children were significantly harmed after being prescribed inappropriate medication by a junior doctor in the CAMHS service in South Kerry. The government's indicated those involved will be compensated, however, it is expected to also lead to a series of medical negligence cases. But HSC CEO Paul Reed says while what happened is wrong, it doesn't mean the public can't have faith in CAMHS. I don't undermine at all what happened in this case. It was wrong by any assessment. I do want to assure the public what is in place are a whole suite of supports, not just in CAMHS, which is for a really smaller percentage of people who are suffering with mental illness, but a whole range of supports in the community are there and we want to make sure they're strong and continue to grow. And there's calls for the HSC to prioritise the restoration of day services at Carrandona Community Hospital. The service was withdrawn almost two years ago and it was confirmed in November last year that the HSC property management team were tasked with finding a suitable alternative facility in Carrandona. Councillor Albert Doherty, who is a member of the Regional Health Forum West, is now in response to a lack of progress by the HSC appealing for assistance from the community to enable the sourcing of a suitable and appropriate facility. On Tuesday of this week, the HSC property management team again said that finding a suitable alternative facility in the Carrandona area was proving daunting. So I'm making an appeal today again that if there's somebody out there that believes their facility is a suitable facility that will allow and enable us to come back sooner rather than later, then please get in contact with myself or with HSC. Whether or not a cloudy start with patchy rain and drizzle, which will linger into the afternoon and evening temperatures of 9 to 11 degrees. We're back with more at 10 o'clock. Until then, good morning. Have you heard the news? The Irish Independent has a new podcast. We're not in the fairytale business as journalists. We're in the truth business and the question was there. 20 minutes, five days a week. The Indo Daily takes you beyond the headlines and into Ireland's most talked about stories. 25 years on, people are absolutely fascinated again with this case. The Indo Daily podcast, named one of Apple's best new podcasts of 2021. And now it's time for the talk of the Northwest, The 9 to Noon Show with Greg Hughes on Highland Radio. And a very good morning to you. On this Friday, the 28th of January, it's four minutes past nine and you're very welcome along to today's 9 till Noon Show. Our lines are open for you right now. Michaela taking your calls and comments to 0749125,000 if you want to get involved in the conversation. You can do so also via WhatsApp or text 0866025,000. If email is your thing, comments at highlandradio.com. And if you want to watch the program and engage with us there, you can go onto our website, highlandradio.com, and you'll be able to click through and watch in your browser, or you can hop on YouTube, Highland Radio Ireland, or on Facebook, on either of our Facebook pages. Alright, let's introduce you to our Friday panel this morning. We'll say good morning first to Breed Corins. Good morning to you, Breed. Great to have you back on the program. How are you keeping? Thanks a million for having me back. Thank you. Now it's our pleasure. Also, Amy McGee, All Ireland, at Window with Donnie Gold, columnist, and a guest on this program. Hi, Amy. Hey, Greg. How's the farm? Long time no see. How are you keeping? I'm keeping good. I'm keeping good. Brilliant stuff. Good. The form's alright. And finally, Leonard Watson, owner of Watson's Men's Wear and Member of Letter Kenny Chamber. The only question from Leonard is, how long will it take for him to try and plug the St. Patrick's Day parade in Letter Kenny? We'll see. Hi, Leonard. Good morning, Greg. Morning, folks. Alright, okay. We're not immediately, so we're doing all that. I'll be diplomatic here. Alright, good man. Now, during the week, T. Shockley Hill-Martin described a review of the care of more than 1,300 children who attended the HSC RunSouth Carey Child and adolescent mental health service, known more generally as CAMHS, as very, very serious and unacceptable. He described it as a profoundly serious issue and told that all today demands a fundamental review. That was earlier in the week. He said the HSC report is a damning indictment of the service provided under CAMHS in South Carey. Following the publication of the report, there'll be a full audit nationwide of compliance with CAMHS operation guidelines. In addition, a prescribing audit will be conducted in each of the 72 CAMHS teams to include a random selections of files proportionate to the medical caseload from a continuous six-month predefined time period in 2021. This obviously was a focus on South Carey, very, very disturbing, but it seems inevitable would you agree, Leonard, that they're going to uncover similar situations around the country or is that an unfair assessment? It's just we've been contacted by multiple people who heard the awful experience of those young people and their families and saying, you know, that's what we've experienced. Yeah, George, Greg, like I'll send to people yesterday, when you need the help of CAMHS, your families in desperation, you know, you have a child or an adolescent who really needs help. As you're at the end of your tether, like from personal experience, my family, we're trying to deal with CAMHS at the moment, but it's just a situation that what happened in Carey was absolutely awful. Like here in Donegal, we're having, it's a different situation. You cannot get an appointment with CAMHS. Our personal situation, seven months, it took us for them to actually speak to us, and then you get a letter out to say that you're now in the waiting list, and it's going to be six months plus. But this is a seven-year-old child here who's got complex needs in that, and, you know, to tell you it's not an emergency, you're waiting over a year. Like, you know, they just, it's just, it's just graceful. Like, it's just the whole system needs a full review. Like, you know, at all. What support might a family get in that intervening time? You know, because obviously, as you say, people are in a situation that, you know, right, we're going to have to go to CAMHS, right? So, and maybe if you didn't know the background, you might think that you are instantly, you know, in a process of getting support or care. That clearly is not the case. You're told there's a waiting list and so on and so forth. So what is supposed, what are parents supposed to do and guardians in the meantime? Greg, you've left yourself. Like, a lot of people will chat to you and tell you, you know, we're trying to help you here, but that doesn't work when you're at home or you're giving adolescence. It's maybe up on like, in our case, like it's just how we feel as ADHD and autism. Like, and you know, it's a seven-year-old child. It's also called a life for the family. It's, you know, but it's not just us. This is hundreds of families around Donegalite. This is a wider problem in Donegalite. And I'm sure other counties do are having somewhere or different problems. Like, you know, even they're in a part of respite centres in Donegalite, which is a vital for some families. Two of them are shut at the moment. There's only two open moments where they're picking up the slack for the whole county. Something has to give that. And when I ask the questions, it's all about, it just seems to come back to you fundamentally. You know, they'll tell you there is no psychiatrist or that staff that there, but you know, sometimes you just feel that you're banging your head off a brick wall. And that, you see, this is the thing. This report, this review will be conducted. And, you know, as we said on the programme yesterday, I think we can probably predetermine much of the outcomes of it. Yeah, Joe, like I heard, I heard the t-shirt, our tonnage just saying, you see, most children seem within 48 hours or a lot of children. I would love to see statistics of that there. Like, you know, when you get a letter out, it doesn't even give you a date. It just says six months plus. That could be a year. That could be a year and a half. And what do you meant to do with that year and a half? You know, you just have to protect that child as much as you can and make sure they're not in danger. And you know, it's just, it's a terrible, terrible indictment on our system, right? And we said yesterday that the state will consider an official apology to children and parents impacted by the report into prescription practices at Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in South Kerryside. It found children had been prescribed inappropriate medication with 46 of them being harmed significantly as a result. Breed Smith, sorry, Breed Corrin, I beg your pardon. Breed Corrin, my apologies. I think she's a minister or was. Is she a politician? Yeah, I believe so. She is. I'll tell you what, I was listening to the, Paul Reed this morning with the HSE responding to this. I don't know if you heard the interview. I did, I did. As soon as the conversation gets to whether a service is safe and accountability, the same old lines are wheeled out. You know, no harm to it. It's just like I'm thinking this person's the top person in this organization. Earning how much? Well, 300 or 400,000 euro. 492,000. Oh, my apologies. But as soon as we try and get to the nitty gritties, it's just like, I'll say anything but answer the question. Yeah. Do you know where the Secretary General of the Department of Health and the Minister for Health are today? They're in Dubai on a health and wellness expo for a couple of days. Now, I don't know about the rest of the panel, but certainly a trip to Dubai would help my health and wellness during the dark months of January. But the message that that's sending out is absolutely horrific. We have a major crisis in psychiatric and psychological services in this country. This is not about one doctor. This is about governance and oversight. It's about a failure to invest in mental health services in this country. I was really cross, and I agree with Leonard. I was really cross when I listened to Leo Radker yesterday because Leo would have its spun that this was one doctor who concerns were raised about him. We're going to have the Maskey report and that's going to sort everything. And we're going to paper over the cracks and everything's going to be fine. It's not going to be fine unless we significantly invest in governance and oversight in mental health services in this country. Unfortunately, Leonard's experience with his lovely seven-year-old is going to be repeated in any family who needs to approach these services and look for help. We need significant investment and we've had years of failure to invest. And Paul Reed really crossed again with him this morning coming out. You know, it's so easy to say I'm sorry, but it's much harder to do actually something about it. And meanwhile, our minister and the secretary general who's on a huge salary are in Dubai. They need to be at their desks and they need to be doing something about this. Would it be realistically, would it be a realistic expectation given that this report is only in one comms area and given the extent to the problem? Is it realistic to say that they should have said given the news that's broken this week, we're actually going to cancel that trip and focus on sort of the situation? It's all about optics. Okay, but is that on real expectation or should they have done that? Do you think? They should have done that. This is far too serious, you know, and your experience of people calling in and saying, I'm working in the Galway-Riskaman area. I've had exactly the same issues been raised with me in the last couple of days with regards to camps in the area that I'm working in. And it's too easy for Lee over at her to say, oh, these families will get compensation. Compensation wouldn't pay you for the trauma and the difficulty that these children and their families are going through. Can I ask you a question about the compensation because listening to interviews there's an awful lot of focus on that as well. Do you think the media actually should be focusing more rather than those specific cases which are important and compensation and will the HSE defend cases? Actually talk about, hold on, yeah. That's potentially the tip of the iceberg. We'll talk about that element of it down the road, but let's focus on what's happening right around the country right now whilst the topic is hot. Compensation is not the answer to this. We shouldn't be making these mistakes in the first place. Compensation wouldn't pay Leonard in relation to what he's going through. There's no, you can't put a price on your child's health and happiness and wellbeing. This is about governance and oversight. This doctor was practicing for two years before a whistleblower came forward and said that he's diagnosing too quickly. He's over relying on medication. This should have been caught within the first six months of an issue with this particular doctor. It's governance, oversight, it's investment. We're only at the tip of the iceberg. I'm seeing particularly in my work an awful lot of young people after the pandemic struggling with mental health issues, particularly that young generation, the 14 to 22, 23-year-old. I'm seeing an awful lot of issues coming up in the criminal courts. That's only the tip of the iceberg. That's just one solicitor in one area. We need to talk about mental health. We need to talk about investing in mental health. We need to talk about resourcing our doctors. We need to talk about governing and providing oversight in relation to it wasn't just one doctor, and Leo Radker was wrong to say that it was one doctor, and he was wrong to say they'll get compensation. That's of no consequence to these parents who are struggling. Yeah. Amy McGee, what's happening in this case feels very similar to me as to the conversations surrounding the Brandon report, which explored sexual abuse of intellectually disabled residents as a Donegal facility. Again, absolutely horrendous. But again, as soon as we start trying to talk about accountability, are people who made decisions or who had oversight, are they still in those positions? All of a sudden it becomes very, very wishy-washy seemingly within the HSE that if you want to try and weed out who may or may not be responsible, every excuse in the book is given rather than saying, yes, we've taken this action, and it's not going to happen again with the same people involved. Yeah, it's that word, Greg, accountability. I think, you know, it's it's nearly we don't do it.