Sinn Féin spokesperson on Mental Health Mark Ward TD has called on the Minister to clarify why the whistleblower who broke the scandal of South Kerry CAMHS was ignored when he offered to temporary fill the post of Consultant Psychiatrist in South Kerry CAMHS.

There is still no full-time consultant psychiatrist in South Kerry.

Teachta Ward said:

“The whistleblower in the South Kerry Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) controversy has offered to fill the post of Consultant Psychiatrist, only to be ignored.

“Dr Ankur Sharma, whose concerns about overmedication and misdiagnosis of children were vindicated in the Maskey report, had previously said he was being treated as if he was non-existent.

“He has since left Kerry to take up a post in England but has offered to return to finish the job that he started.

“Reports yesterday by solicitor Keith Rolls of Coleman Legal Solicitors, who represent Dr Sharma, confirmed that the HSE never replied to his client when he offered to work on a locum basis until the full-time role of a consultant psychiatrist was filled.

“I was speaking today with my Sinn Féin colleague, Kerry County Councillor Deirdre Ferris, who confirmed to me that there is still no full-time consultant psychiatrist in South Kerry.

“Dr Sharma exposed the harmful treatment of hundreds of young mental health patients at CAMHS and we should be thanking him.

“It is a measure of the man that, despite his mistreatment by the HSE, he was willing to return to help.

“He should be commended, not ignored.

“There is a culture of lacking transparency and accountability at the top of the HSE and once again whistleblowers are being treated very poorly.

“I have submitted questions to the Minister of Health asking him to clarify why Dr Sharma’s offer to help was ignored.”