Vulnerable mental health patients are being traumatised, sexually assaulted and physically harmed in UK hospitals – and have even managed to escape, the safety watchdog has warned in its first major national investigation. The report by the Health Services Safety Investigation Branch (HSSIB), launched by former health secretary Steve Barclay after The Independent exposed a series of failings in the sector, warns the government and healthcare leaders that cash starved “oppressive” mental health hospitals are causing harm to patients . Inpatient mental health services across England are failing to keep highly vulnerable patients safe and are even re-traumatising them, according to the HSSIB.
It highlights a litany of concerns over safety, much of it driven by national shortages of mental health staff and warns the flagship NHS long-term workforce plan ambitions may be “unattainable”. Other failings highlighted by the safety watchdog include: The report is the first in a series which are due to be published by the HSSIB over the next year, which will also look at children’s inpatient care. It comes following a series of exposés by The Independent and Sky News over “systemic” failings within a group of private children’s hospitals.
Dr Sarah Hughes, chief executive of the charity Mind, said the report reveals the “brutal truth” about the state of mental health hospitals. She said: “What should be places of recovery have, for too many people, become places.