Psychological health Patients are being ‘illegally’ held at A&Es across the country as they wait long for care and family members force staff to ‘rig’ the law, independent It has been said.
the University hospital The North Midland Trust has been sanctioned by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for holding mental health patients without any legal authority.
However, experts said independent, The problem is pervasive and occurs in every emergency department in the country with some patients waiting ‘days’ and even ‘weeks’. A&E.
Dr. Chloe Bell, a consultant psychiatrist, said staff have been forced to “dodge” when it comes to laws about keeping people in A&E while they wait for ongoing mental health care.
Leaders at Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust have raised recurring concerns in recent months about patient days waiting at A&E for mental health care.
The CQC raised concerns about the evaluation of mental health patients at UHNM after the October inspection and served the fund with a warning notice.
In a message he sees independent, The TQM said two patients were “unlawfully confined to the hospital”. She said that although the staff were working in the patient’s best interests in both cases, legal procedures were clearly “not followed”.
“Therefore, this can be considered a great violation of any character or luxury,”
It comes as MPs last week challenged the new mental health minister over poor access to mental health care in England during a debate in the House of Commons.
Data previously disclosed by independent revealed that the proportion of mental health patients waiting 12 hours at A&E was almost twice that of all other patients.
Reports previously revealed hundreds of children attending A&E daily for mental health reasons, some waiting in emergency departments for five days.
Barking Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust said in their board papers last week that during one day in October they had 15 people in emergency departments, one of whom was as young as 13, waiting to be seen by mental health professionals.
Five of these patients were left waiting in EDs for more than two days, while one waited for another 10 days to find the right bed.
Dr. Bell saidindependent The issue of illegally detained patients occurred in every hospital.
She said, “Partly because of the resources because we don’t have enough people to do the assessments in a timely manner, people leave before the assessment or want to leave before the assessment is complete.
Article 136 [of the Mental health Act] Expires after 24 hours, but most of the time because bed crunch is so bad, even if you are assessed as mental health law incarceration, bed is not recognized during those 24 hours [window]. The law does not cover this gap.”
She said the law did not tell doctors what to do, and staff were using the Mental Capacity Act to “fill in the loopholes” and “circumvent”.
Dr Bell added: “A lot of places don’t have enough 24/7 psychiatry [capacity] Yet even those who do are so stressed out that they can’t see everyone in time or can’t reach people quickly.
“There are a lot of people waiting for psychiatric beds in emergency departments for days and sometimes weeks. So this happens every day. It’s everywhere, every day, and it’s a completely hidden and illegal deprivation of liberty.”
Dr Bell gave evidence before a House of Lords committee last week when she discussed extending the mental health act’s use of “retention powers”, which currently only apply to patients admitted to a ward, to A&E as well.
However, some clinicians have warned that expanding powers will not address the problem of under-resourced mental health services.
Tell Dr. Alex Thompson, Consultant Psychiatrist Independent: “In the case of a mental health emergency, delays in getting to the family mean that some patients in the UK may be held for an unreasonably long period in the emergency department before admission. Rather than changing the law to allow such long waiting periods, what is required is an adequate investment in services Mental Health to End Delays.”
Tracey Bullock, chief executive of UHNM, said: “Given the improvements noted since the last CQC examination and a clear commitment at the trust level to ensure the best possible care for patients with mental health issues, we are disappointed that the CQC felt it necessary to keep its official notice after their last visit. .
“However, we were pleased that they recognized the progress made in terms of the policies and assessment documents and we are fully committed to working closely with them to ensure they have the assurance they need in terms of staff completing the documentation fully.
“We are not specialists in providing mental health services but we take the mental health of our patients very seriously which is why we are among the minority of trust that have hired mental health nurses. We acknowledge that we need to continue improving our documentation and processes in order to ensure that we can demonstrate that Patient rights are protected at all times. We remain committed to making any necessary changes to demonstrate that we continue to live up to our reputation for providing safe and effective care for all.”
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