Trust criticised for locking up mental health patients

A trust in the West Midlands has been criticised for locking up patients with mental health problems who are not being detained against their will.

The Black Country Mental Health NHS Trust in Sandwell, which runs 257 beds, says it keeps the doors at inpatient houses at Hallam Street Hospital open whenever possible. But when inspectors from the Commission for Health Improvement made a routine visit and asked about the usual policy at the hospital, staff, patients, and carers said doors were generally locked.

If they wanted to leave the premises, patients who were being treated of their own accord, and not under the Mental Health Act, had to ask to be let outside and often had to wait if staff were unavailable.

In their review of the trust, inspectors said the trust needed to do more to make sure that voluntary patients were treated with dignity and allowed the freedom to come and go as they pleased.

The trust was also criticised for not allowing patients to see visitors in private, but always in a common lounge. Inspectors noted too comments of the patients that the inpatient houses felt small and cramped and that there were few places to get food after 5 pm, when the cafeteria closed.

For the full report see http://www.chi.nhs.uk/