Government’s mental health review will not prevent ‘appalling’ abuse of patients, campaigners warn

A government review into mental health hospitals will fail to prevent the “appalling” treatment of patients, campaigners have warned.

The urgent inquiry into inpatient mental health services will focus solely on data, the government said on Tuesday.

The “rapid review”, launched following investigations by The Independent into “systemic abuse” across a group of children’s mental health hospitals, will last 12 weeks and is being led by a former national NHS mental health director Dr Geraldine Strathdee.

In an outline of what it will cover, the Department for Health and Social Care said it would look at what data is collected by the NHS on inpatient mental health services and whether it is used effectively to identify patient safety problems.

It will also look at the quality of data and identify good examples of care but it won’t look at individual cases of abuse or community services.

Major mental health charity Mind has warned the review “is not enough” and will not provide any learnings on how to prevent poor care. The charity is instead calling for a national statutory public inquiry into inpatient mental health services.

Read full story

Source: The Independent, 15 February 2023