Intensive care facility closed at Muckamore

A review into the safety of vulnerable adults at the Co Antrim facility revealed that lives had been compromised.

It is believed that more than 20 staff have been suspended to date, with one nurse describing the situation as being at “crisis point”.

Both the PSNI and the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust are investigating abuse claims.

Police have confirmed they “attended a report of an incident” at Muckamore on Tuesday – said by the BBC to have been the need to restrain a patient who would previously have been placed in the controversial ‘seclusion room’.

Last week, the mother of a patient at the hospital said the seclusion room resembled a “dark dungeon”.

The Belfast Trust said: “Our priority is to provide a safe service; to do this we have moved affected patients into other wards.”