Yesterday the watchdog for detained patients in England and Wales, the Mental Health Act Commission revealed the shocking level of care given to many patients.
It raised serious concerns about patients safety and basic human rights. According to the Community Care news story:
The report cited several disturbing cases including one case where a male patient was secluded "90% of the time with no quality of life" and no other service willing to take him.In another case, vulnerable women were housed with "predatory" men but were unwilling to take forward allegations of physical and sexual abuse because they were afraid of what would happen.
The commission has a history of strongly standing up for the rights of people subject to the Mental Health Act and hard-hitting reports. I'm sure much of it strength is based on its specialist expertise and tightly-focused role.
I'm worried some of this might be lost once it is swallowed up by the new super regulator - the Care Quality Commission. The commission's chair Lord Patel, has made a similar point and should be listened to. Mental health must be the only area of the new commission's remit where people are detained against their will and so is very different from the rest of the healthcare sector.
Hopefully proper systems will be put in place to make sure this specialist area is not overlooked.
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