Lynne Featherstone

Liberal Democrats in Haringey have slammed the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust for running a ‘Victorian mental health service’, following the publication of a highly critical report last week into mental health services in the three boroughs by the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), a Government ‘watchdog’.

Among the key findings of the CHI Report, which found some good practice in areas such as music therapy and the Antenna scheme for black and ethnic minority mental health, were:

• Informed consent was not always obtained before treatment and medication was routinely given in patients’ food.
• There were numerous ‘ligature’ points around buildings.
• Negative feedback from patients about their treatment by staff.
• Basic Nursing care was poor.
• Doors to and from wards were often locked.
• Bed occupancy was 130% with 36 patients using 18 beds during the day and patients being ‘slept out’ at night.
• Police stations were used as places of safety with no explanation to patients or carers as to why they were in a police station and not a hospital

CHI concluded that there were “significant concerns about the quality of patient care in some areas of the Trust, around maintenance of service users privacy and dignity and poor risk management”.

Lib Dem Social Services Spokesperson, Cllr Ron Aitken, is shocked by the report on the Trust, which is proposing to close two vital day hospitals in Haringey:

“It is frankly horrifying – more like a Victorian Bedlam than the NHS of the 21st Century promised by Tony Blair.

“The Trust should lift the threat to Canning Crescent and Kate Marsden day hospitals. I would also like an assurance that treatments have not been administered to patients without consent. This is a very serious concern.”