Recent violent attacks allegedly committed by two St. Brendan's Hospital patients were "just the tip of the iceberg,'' an employee at the psychiatric facility has charged.

And the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, accused hospital administrators of pursuing policies that were "dangerous'' to both patients and the public.

"A couple of years ago there was a very aggressive attempt to get patients out in the community,'' the hospital source said. "But to do that there must be rehabilitation -- and the hospital has made only a half-hearted effort to provide patients with the necessary (social) skills.'' The source, a hospital staffer who wished to remain anonymous, has worked at St. Brendan's for "many years'' and is intimately involved with the day-to-day provision of psychiatric care at the facility.

Chief among the reasons the source cited for speaking out was the "severe breach of security'' that allowed two patients with long histories of violence to leave the hospital over the past two months and allegedly assault two separate women.

In one case, a 41-year-old man who had been sharing unsecured hospital housing with a female patient in Sandys Parish reportedly sent the 60-year-old woman to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital with serious facial injuries after a fight broke out between them.

The man, whom Police say will not be tried for the attack, had a lengthy history of "violent'' and "paranoid'' behaviour and is currently being housed on the hospital's highly secured Adams Ward.

The second case involves a sexual assault which cannot be reported on because it is currently before the courts.

But according to the St. Brendan's source, the incidents were reflective of two larger problems at the hospital: a movement over the past few years to reintegrate patients into the community before they are ready and the replacement of specially trained psychiatric nurses with less qualified nursing assistants as a result of cost-cutting.

"The nursing assistants do not understand the importance of administering prescribed drugs at a specified time or if the patients refuse to take them,'' the source said, citing a case in which a diabetic woman fell into a hyperglycaemic coma as a result of an administrative lapse.

"In her case, I think it was forgotten.'' At the same time as the hospital's budget is being pared down, however, the source said the administration continues to build an "already obsolete'' four-bed annex which comes with such suspect contrivances as a concrete bed.

"Officially (the eight-bed) Adams Ward shut down three years ago, but it's been filled to capacity since then. The annex, meanwhile, has only four beds.

It's obsolete before it even opens.'' As for the concrete bed, "(hospital executive director) Mrs. (Sheila) Manderson absolutely flipped when she saw that. She's been raising a few hackles.'' Hospital administrators attacked Mrs. Manderson has not been the only person at the hospital to question certain policies, the source said, adding: "Morale is very low. If something like (the attacks) happen, there is no open discussion. A veil of secrecy is thrown over everything.'' The source said administrators were "authoritarian''.

Messages left by The Royal Gazette for chief of psychiatry Dr. Richard Lament and nursing and patient services director Mrs. Joan Dillis Wright went unanswered yesterday.

Dr. Gavin Tennant, whom the source described as the "chief architect'' of the patient reintegration policy, was off the Island and could not be reached for comment.