Mental health patient ‘locked up on NHS hospital ward for 21 years’

A mental health patient has been locked up on an NHS hospital ward for 21 years, it has been reported.

An investigation by the Guardian found that hundreds of people with mental health problems are being kept in “locked rehabilitation wards” in hospitals.

A 2017 report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said the wards had no place in a modern healthcare system.

Patients are unable to leave the units when they want. The wards were introduced about 10 years ago and are mainly provided by the private sector to treat people deemed a high risk to others.

Through freedom of information requests, the Guardian found that at least 435 patients spent time in locked rehabilitation wards last year, up from 404 in 2015.

It said one patient at Birmingham and Solihull mental health NHS foundation trust spent 7,914 days – or more than 21 years – in one of the wards.

Another patient at the trust stayed for 6,174 days, or nearly 17 years.

In the Sussex Partnership NHS foundation trust, the average time of stay in one of the wards was 602 days, almost two years.

The 2017 report by the CQC said the practice left vulnerable patients feeling isolated and less likely to recover.

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Rajesh Mohan, chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ rehabilitation psychiatry faculty, told the Guardian: “If the principle of care is based on locking the doors, people cannot leave the building, then you cannot have voluntary patients at all there.

“It means restrictions are applied to everyone rather than there being a focus on recovery.”

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb said: “They are like old-style asylums that have no place in modern Britain. What we are doing is a fundamental breach of people’s human rights.

“It is a complete contradiction in terms: locked rehabilitation ward. There are lots of people who are capable of living independent lives with support who are locked up.”

Mr Mohan said that more than a third of NHS rehabilitation services have disappeared in the past 15 years.

He said: “The need for these services has not gone away. People with lots of complex and enduring symptoms need rehabilitation treatment and the private sector stepped in to bridge this service gap, but people may become isolated in these units for long periods of time.

“People in rehabilitation units should be able to move on to less restrictive rehabilitation settings. But that will only happen if they have places to be discharged to, such as supported accommodation with 24-hour supported community care.

“There will be some people whose illness and symptoms are very severe, but that does not mean they should be stuck in hospital for 21 years. There needs to be more focus on community rehabilitation teams and high quality supported housing.”