Brendan's Hospital managed to escape from the unit on Tuesday night.

When contacted by The Royal Gazette , it was claimed that both the hospital's Director of Programming and the Chief Psychiatrist claimed they knew nothing about the incident.

A hospital spokeswoman later confirmed that a voluntary patient had walked out of the unit at about 8.40.p.m. on Tuesday.

The escape prompted a massive Police search in which yet another patrol car crashed. The patient was later picked up by Police on South Shore Road, Smiths, about one mile away from the hospital.

Eye witnesses claim they saw the man, who has not been named, dressed in a regulation hospital gown, sitting in the middle of the road before officers bundled him into a Police car and took him back to the hospital.

A spokeswoman refused to say whether the man was still being detained.

And she also said that, despite the incident, the hospital has no plans to review security arrangements.

The spokeswoman told The Royal Gazette : "The system works quite well at the moment.

"If a person becomes a danger to themselves or the public they can be detained under the Mental Health Act.

"But as a voluntary patient they cannot be detained. What you are saying is that if mental health professionals deem some behaviour to be inappropriate they can just go and take people off the streets.

"If you are under pressure or a lot of stress you may decide to come in for some counselling. But once you've come in for counselling you don't become a locked-in patient.

"In this case he had a problem, walked in and then walked out again.''