Scandal of Labour's blunders that led to murder by mental patient
The needs of dangerous psychiatric patients are being put before the safety of the general public, according to a report to be published today on the murder of a retired banker by a mental health patient. The highly critical report into how a psychiatric patient at a south London hospital escaped and attacked Denis Finnegan as he cycled through Richmond Park will reveal how a catalogue of systemic errors led to his death.
Chaired by Robert Robinson, a mental health lawyer, the report is said to be one of the most damning in the past decade. Over 400 pages it details a catalogue of preventable errors at Springfield Hospital which led to Mr Finnegan's murder. It concludes that a special medium secure facility in the hospital, the Shaftesbury Unit, must be closed pending an external audit.
A mental health insider said: "This report contains relentless criticism of the systems in place to look after violent patients. It will send shockwaves through the whole of the mental health system and should be adopted nationally as a guide to what to do and not to do with this group of patients."
Springfield Hospital, run by South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust, was seen as a centre of excellence. However in the last decade several psychiatric patients under the care of the hospital have committed murders.
Mr Finnegan was killed by John Barrett in September 2004. Barrett had previously stabbed three people in the outpatients department of St George's Hospital in 2002. As a result, he became a "restricted patient" which means that the Home Office had ultimate responsibility for monitoring him in the community.
He was admitted to the Shaftesbury Unit the day before he murdered Mr Finnegan. He was given an hour's ground leave but absconded. He is now in Broadmoor hospital. Mr Finnegan was stabbed several times in the back and chest before Barrett walked away. As Mr Finnegan bled to death from three stab wounds he asked Barrett: "What have I done?" Later Barrett said: "With all my heart, nobody should deserve that. I am glad to have been caught."
At his Old Bailey trial in March last year, Barrett pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He was jailed for life with a recommendation that he serve at least eight years.
The inquiry report calls for the Shaftesbury Unit to be closed for examination by an external team. It says the panel has doubts about the managerial abilities of this part of the forensic service and that this has "serious implications for the safe delivery of patient care". It also finds that many of the regular reports which psychiatrists must submit to the Home Office so that a risk assessment of the patient staying in the community can be carried out were never submitted.
The Home Office admitted to The Guardian this year that there was a problem with monitoring violent offenders with mental health problems after release. A spokesman at the time said: "It is an ongoing battle to get the reports."
The inquiry report also finds that the delicate balance between the therapeutic needs of patients and the safety of the community had swung too far towards patients, putting people in the community at risk in this case. John Finnegan, brother of Denis Finnegan who has received the report, said: "It's a great relief to me that this report is robust and isn't a whitewash.
"When people have been negligent it needs to be broadcast far and wide in the NHS. The lack of monitoring of patients like John Barrett is a major issue. I hope that this report will be used nationally to highlight what's gone wrong and to prevent it from happening again."
Michael Howlett, of the mental health charity the Zito Trust, said: "My understanding is that the death of Denis Finnegan was very preventable and that serious questions are now being asked of the forensic services at Springfield Hospital which require a national response."
Previous Springfield patients who have carried out murders include Joseph Cann, an aggressive patient who was left alone with psychiatric nurse Eshan Chattun in June 2003. He bludgeoned Mr Chattun to death. In February Matthew Carter was kicked and stamped to death by Springfield patient Sean Perry, a schizophrenic who was released from the hospital into the community but relapsed and stopped taking his medication.
This posting is from:
http://society.guardian.co.uk/socialcare/news/0,,1948788,00.html
Nearly two years ago (Feb 28 2005) Health Direct carried a report on this tragic case: Review of Mental Health Bill after knife killing when John Reid, the then Secretary of State for Health, ordered a review of proposed changes to the law covering mental patients after the case of John Barrett, the paranoid schizophrenic who released himself from care and stabbed a banker to death in a London park.
Since then virtually nothing has improved.
Changes to the then draft Mental Health Bill were considered to give doctors greater powers to detain patients such as Barrett who volunteer for treatment for mental illness and then discharge themselves.
But as our posting pointed out, a fundamental overhaul was needed.
The case goes to the heart of the problems encountered by the Government with its Mental Health Bill, which ran into enormous opposition from mental health groups when it was unveiled in 2002. The Bill tried to close a loophole in the law which the former home secretary Jack Straw believed had led to the release of Michael Stone before he killed Lin Russell and her daughter Megan in a hammer attack in Kent in 1996.
Stone was left free to commit the murder because his severe personality disorder was considered untreatable. It was estimated there were more than 600 similar, dangerous cases in Britain and the first draft of the Bill proposed new powers to detain such people.
But the proposals were watered down after an outcry from mental health professionals, charities and patients and since ditched.
Mr Reid had ordered his officials to review the national implications for care in the community. This report today is the "urgent" result.
The Denis Finnegan Trust- Denis Rides Out
The Denis Finnegan Trust was set up and published the book Denis Rides Out as they believe with your help we can make a Difference. His family and friends do not want his death to be in vain.
"We must address failing government Care in the Community policy, an issue that was first raised back in 1994 by the Zito family after the tragic loss of Jonathan in similar harrowing circumstances. What have the Government learned in ten years? How many more lives need to be lost? The impact is immeasurable."
http://www.finneganstrust.com
A brief look at his friends' website shows that the world is a sadder place without Mr Finnegan. One such example reads:
"From New York
It was Ronald Regan that said "There are no Russians in East Germany". He was of course always more than half a degree off plumb. Now though he would probably be right, the Russians are on the move leaving the mother country now they can all get passports.
I was on the plane waiting to set off for New York and I saw two coming towards me. She was hangover white with cigarette smoke hair. She was a true super model of the tundra. She looked a bit like a plate of unruly mixed grill with bits and pieces of meat sticking out everywhere.
I didn't know then but found out later that in fact she was more of a mixed up grill. She let loose during the flight that she had a fear of sponges. Well, I think it was sponges. It was difficult to
work out exactly what she was saying most of the time.
Her husband had that type of big potbelly where the trousers dip under the overhang to emerge a couple of miles later on the other side. He was obviously storing up for the possibility that life would not always be as fat as it now was, fearing that sooner or later it could be back to hunting down the last cabbage in the village or eating your frozen neighbour."
The book appears to be great value at £7 including postage and packaging, with all profits going to childrens' charities. http://www.finneganstrust.com
Chaired by Robert Robinson, a mental health lawyer, the report is said to be one of the most damning in the past decade. Over 400 pages it details a catalogue of preventable errors at Springfield Hospital which led to Mr Finnegan's murder. It concludes that a special medium secure facility in the hospital, the Shaftesbury Unit, must be closed pending an external audit.
A mental health insider said: "This report contains relentless criticism of the systems in place to look after violent patients. It will send shockwaves through the whole of the mental health system and should be adopted nationally as a guide to what to do and not to do with this group of patients."
Springfield Hospital, run by South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust, was seen as a centre of excellence. However in the last decade several psychiatric patients under the care of the hospital have committed murders.
Mr Finnegan was killed by John Barrett in September 2004. Barrett had previously stabbed three people in the outpatients department of St George's Hospital in 2002. As a result, he became a "restricted patient" which means that the Home Office had ultimate responsibility for monitoring him in the community.
He was admitted to the Shaftesbury Unit the day before he murdered Mr Finnegan. He was given an hour's ground leave but absconded. He is now in Broadmoor hospital. Mr Finnegan was stabbed several times in the back and chest before Barrett walked away. As Mr Finnegan bled to death from three stab wounds he asked Barrett: "What have I done?" Later Barrett said: "With all my heart, nobody should deserve that. I am glad to have been caught."
At his Old Bailey trial in March last year, Barrett pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He was jailed for life with a recommendation that he serve at least eight years.
The inquiry report calls for the Shaftesbury Unit to be closed for examination by an external team. It says the panel has doubts about the managerial abilities of this part of the forensic service and that this has "serious implications for the safe delivery of patient care". It also finds that many of the regular reports which psychiatrists must submit to the Home Office so that a risk assessment of the patient staying in the community can be carried out were never submitted.
The Home Office admitted to The Guardian this year that there was a problem with monitoring violent offenders with mental health problems after release. A spokesman at the time said: "It is an ongoing battle to get the reports."
The inquiry report also finds that the delicate balance between the therapeutic needs of patients and the safety of the community had swung too far towards patients, putting people in the community at risk in this case. John Finnegan, brother of Denis Finnegan who has received the report, said: "It's a great relief to me that this report is robust and isn't a whitewash.
"When people have been negligent it needs to be broadcast far and wide in the NHS. The lack of monitoring of patients like John Barrett is a major issue. I hope that this report will be used nationally to highlight what's gone wrong and to prevent it from happening again."
Michael Howlett, of the mental health charity the Zito Trust, said: "My understanding is that the death of Denis Finnegan was very preventable and that serious questions are now being asked of the forensic services at Springfield Hospital which require a national response."
Previous Springfield patients who have carried out murders include Joseph Cann, an aggressive patient who was left alone with psychiatric nurse Eshan Chattun in June 2003. He bludgeoned Mr Chattun to death. In February Matthew Carter was kicked and stamped to death by Springfield patient Sean Perry, a schizophrenic who was released from the hospital into the community but relapsed and stopped taking his medication.
This posting is from:
http://society.guardian.co.uk/socialcare/news/0,,1948788,00.html
Nearly two years ago (Feb 28 2005) Health Direct carried a report on this tragic case: Review of Mental Health Bill after knife killing when John Reid, the then Secretary of State for Health, ordered a review of proposed changes to the law covering mental patients after the case of John Barrett, the paranoid schizophrenic who released himself from care and stabbed a banker to death in a London park.
Since then virtually nothing has improved.
Changes to the then draft Mental Health Bill were considered to give doctors greater powers to detain patients such as Barrett who volunteer for treatment for mental illness and then discharge themselves.
But as our posting pointed out, a fundamental overhaul was needed.
The case goes to the heart of the problems encountered by the Government with its Mental Health Bill, which ran into enormous opposition from mental health groups when it was unveiled in 2002. The Bill tried to close a loophole in the law which the former home secretary Jack Straw believed had led to the release of Michael Stone before he killed Lin Russell and her daughter Megan in a hammer attack in Kent in 1996.
Stone was left free to commit the murder because his severe personality disorder was considered untreatable. It was estimated there were more than 600 similar, dangerous cases in Britain and the first draft of the Bill proposed new powers to detain such people.
But the proposals were watered down after an outcry from mental health professionals, charities and patients and since ditched.
Mr Reid had ordered his officials to review the national implications for care in the community. This report today is the "urgent" result.
The Denis Finnegan Trust- Denis Rides Out
The Denis Finnegan Trust was set up and published the book Denis Rides Out as they believe with your help we can make a Difference. His family and friends do not want his death to be in vain.
"We must address failing government Care in the Community policy, an issue that was first raised back in 1994 by the Zito family after the tragic loss of Jonathan in similar harrowing circumstances. What have the Government learned in ten years? How many more lives need to be lost? The impact is immeasurable."
http://www.finneganstrust.com
A brief look at his friends' website shows that the world is a sadder place without Mr Finnegan. One such example reads:
"From New York
It was Ronald Regan that said "There are no Russians in East Germany". He was of course always more than half a degree off plumb. Now though he would probably be right, the Russians are on the move leaving the mother country now they can all get passports.
I was on the plane waiting to set off for New York and I saw two coming towards me. She was hangover white with cigarette smoke hair. She was a true super model of the tundra. She looked a bit like a plate of unruly mixed grill with bits and pieces of meat sticking out everywhere.
I didn't know then but found out later that in fact she was more of a mixed up grill. She let loose during the flight that she had a fear of sponges. Well, I think it was sponges. It was difficult to
work out exactly what she was saying most of the time.
Her husband had that type of big potbelly where the trousers dip under the overhang to emerge a couple of miles later on the other side. He was obviously storing up for the possibility that life would not always be as fat as it now was, fearing that sooner or later it could be back to hunting down the last cabbage in the village or eating your frozen neighbour."
The book appears to be great value at £7 including postage and packaging, with all profits going to childrens' charities. http://www.finneganstrust.com
posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic at
11:46 AM
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