Category Archives: hospital

Children suffering from mental health conditions put in prison cells for want of suitable hospital beds

The vast majority of cases involved young people who posed no threat to the public, but who were suicidal or in danger of self-harming

More than 200 children, some as young as 12, were held in police cells while suffering mental health crises last year, because of a lack of suitable hospital beds, figures obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal.

Police in England and Wales detained 202 vulnerable under-18s under the Mental Health Act, some for more than two days, despite widespread condemnation of the practice. Hampshire police held a 17-year-old girl for 63 hours and 40 minutes, while Nottinghamshire police held a 16-year-old girl for 52 hours.

It's so wrong.

Fat cats milk the NHS yet doctors like me have to turn away the sick to save cash

No doubt you read with anger and disbelief the Mail exposé of the astronomical salaries some NHS managers are being given. Anyone who pays into the NHS would feel the same.

Norfolk and Suffolk mental health Skype ‘outsourcing’ causes concern

The Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust manages mental health wards at Hellesdon Hospital near Norwich, and around the counties

A health trust’s proposal to help treat patients with depression by using “staff from lower wage countries” via Skype showed a lack of understanding of mental health care, say campaigners.

The idea was put forward in a report to the government by the mental health trust for Norfolk and Suffolk.

Unison, which represents mental health staff, said the plan failed to show an understanding of mental health care.

A trust spokesman said the proposal was looked at but has been dismissed.

The plan, drawn up towards the end of last summer, was contained in a successful application to the government by the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) to fund consultants to look into new ways of running the trust.

Emma Corlett, of Unison, criticised the suggestion that patients with depression could be helped by staff from low-wage countries via Skype

One option could see the NSFT become a mutual – a firm owned by its workers, as is the case with retailer John Lewis.

The report said the use of staff from outside the UK to help prevent depression and psychosis was a “new approach” to be explored.

Emma Corlett, spokeswoman for Unison at the trust, said: “Our view of the report is that it shows whoever did the application did not have a very clear understanding of the work frontline staff do or the way face-to-face therapy works.