Poor community resources blamed for patients being placed in Carstairs

Patients are regularly placed inappropriately in the high
security State Hospital Carstairs due to a lack of community
resources, the hospital’s own medical director has
confirmed.

Dr Jenni Connaughton was speaking out after the parents of one
patient Darren Crichton petitioned the Scottish parliament, and
gave details of how he had been waiting unsuccessfully for
discharge for two years due to a lack of resources in his home area
of Tayside. Connaughton said that while the numbers varied, at this
time 33 patients were in a similar position to Crichton.

Last December the Scottish Health Advisory Service (SHAS)
reported that on average 40 patients at any time were placed in
Carstairs due to a lack of local resources. SHAS claims that these
patients no longer need the top secure environment of Carstairs,
and calls for a network of medium secure centres to be set up
across Scotland.

Plans to build such centres in Glasgow and Edinburgh have met
with fierce opposition from local communities. Trade unions warned
that staff would resign from Stobbhill Hospital in Glasgow if that
unit was chosen as the site for such a development.