Suicidal patients ‘ignored’ and accused of ‘attention seeking’ by NHS services, national probe warns

Suicidal patients are being ignored and accused of “attention seeking” as families have to fight to keep them in hospital, a national inquiry into mental health services has found.

The investigation has warned NHS mental health services are placing critically ill suicidal patients at risk of harm by using the wrong suicide assessments and ignoring warnings over early discharge from hospital.

The inquiry, by the Health Services Safety Investigation Branch, found examples of staff who had accused suicidal patients of “attention seeking” and instances of patients being discharged from mental health units before they were ready.

The father of one young person described having to get on the floor and beg staff not to discharge his daughter, while another patient went on to have life-changing injuries just hours after they were discharged.

Former health secretary Steve Barclay commissioned HSSIB to investigate safety concerns across mental health services following a series of reports from The Independent exposing “systemic abuse” at a group of children’s mental health hospitals.

The HSSIB findings come as a major public inquiry into the deaths of more than 2,000 patients cared for by mental health hospitals in Essex was launched this week. The inquiry chair Baroness Kate Lampard warned the shocking scale of deaths due to service failures may never be truly known.

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Source: The Independent, 11 September 2024