The doctor, who is also a representative of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, decided to speak out after a 58 year old female patient was strangled on a mental health ward in Rochdale. A 36 year old male patient has been charged with murder.

The doctor said it was often very difficult to maintain single-sex facilities because of the pressure on beds.

“The wards are packed to the gills with really psychotic patients,” he said. “It is as bad as it ever has been.”

He said most serious incidents on the wards, such as attacks on other patients or staff, absconding and murders, were a direct result of the pressures on beds.

The consultant said: “There are fewer beds, and staff are under immense pressure to get people out because of the number of people coming in.

“The inpatients are really ill, really psychotic and most are detained under the Mental Health Act.

“Most assaults are covered up. Nurses are off sick because they have been beaten up. There will definitely be more tragedies on the wards if the cuts continue,” he said.

From:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/16/npsychic116.xml

On Sept 29, 06 Health Direct posted: Mental health services are ‘failing’ as watchdog finds that the services are abysmal.

People suffering mental health problems are being failed by poor access to key community services, a watchdog says. Most people with mental health problems are treated out of hospitals.

The Healthcare Commission’s review of 174 mental health teams in England found gaps in out-of-hours care, talking therapies and access to information. The watchdog rated only one in 10 as excellent, with nearly half just getting a fair grade.

The scandal of mental health provision- or lack of doesn’t just effect the afflicted. On Nov 16 06 Health Direct posted: 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.

“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.”