Image caption Muckamore Abbey Hospital provides treatment for people with severe learning disabilities and mental health needs.

An arrest has been made in connection with abuse allegations at Muckamore Abbey Hospital in County Antrim.

A 30-year-old man was arrested by officers in Antrim on Monday morning.

He is the first person to be arrested since the allegations about the hospital emerged.

In recent months the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has been investigating thousands of incidents after allegations were made about the physical and mental abuse of patients.

Muckamore Abbey provides treatment for people with severe learning disabilities and mental health needs.

It has been alleged a number of vulnerable men and women were abused.

A total of 33 staff members, mainly nurses, have been suspended at the hospital since 2017 when allegations of ill treatment first began to surface.

They have been placed on precautionary suspension from the hospital while police investigations into abuse allegations continue.

In addition, the BBC understands five other members of staff resigned from their posts last week.

'Held to account'

While it is nurses and care assistants who have been suspended, the Belfast Health Trust has confirmed to the BBC no-one from management was involved in the police investigation.

According to families who have spoken to the BBC those in charge should also be held to account and they say that is why only a public inquiry will provide the answers to what actually happened inside the hospital.

They also say an inquiry is where issues such as accountability, governance and leadership within the trust and the hospital can be explored.

The Belfast Health and Social Trust said the suspensions followed viewing of CCTV footage from the facility.

Two of the suspended staff members were also referred to social services in relation to the care of their own children.

In August 2018, it was reported there had been 53 assaults on patients by staff at the hospital - five of those incidents were investigated and substantiated.

The Belfast Trust as offered its "sincere apologies" to patients and families affected.

Formal action was taken by the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) in August 2019, when the health regulator issued three enforcement notices about staffing and nurse provision; adult safeguarding and patient finances.

As a result of the ongoing staffing crisis, the trust has asked for staff that work in the community to be pulled and placed in Muckamore Abbey Hospital instead.