‘Harrowing’ failings in NHS mental health treatment have led to even more deaths
Only last November we learned that 120,000 people had died in the social care sector, because of Tory austerity cuts.
Now we learn that more people are dying because of failings in mental health care, after hundreds of deaths were revealed due to lapses caused by privatisation.
And Jeremy Hunt has been unable to account – adequately – for an extra 10,000+ deaths in the first seven weeks of the year.
We don’t have a government – we have a cartel of serial killers.
A mental health patient died from a drug overdose after being discharged by NHS staff due to missing one appointment.
David West’s death is one of several “harrowing” cases highlighted in a new report that documents “serious failings” in England’s mental health services.
He was discharged by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust’s community health team after missing a single appointment. But he was not told of the decision, given a discharge plan, or offered access to a crisis service.
He died shortly after from a drugs overdose.
Campaigners said the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) report showed “the desperate need for reform” of “overstretched services”.
The PHSO, Rob Behrens, said … “These cases are not isolated examples. They are symptomatic of persistent problems we see time and again in our complaints casework and, moreover, they represent failings throughout the care pathway.”
Source: ‘Harrowing’ failings in NHS mental health treatment laid bare by ombudsman report | The Independent
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Is it not seven weeks, rather than months?
Yes it is – thanks for spotting that.
No worries. I was looking it up earlier on myself, which is how I knew
The failings in mental health go back to the wholesale loss of beds with the additional reduction in Nurses and Doctors since the mid 80’s.
I was assessed over the phone by my local mental health team last year, after I reached out to them for help. The assessor said I was at high risk of suicide. She also said she had to report my confession of being raped forty years before to the police. I was devastated by this betrayal of trust. For the next week I was telephoned daily – by the police, insisting that I came in and made a statement. I stopped answering my phone because I couldn’t take the pressure. During that time I missed two calls from the mental health team.
Eventually I gave in. I was interviewed by two police officer, under caution, for two hours on video. Going over and over the events was so harrowing that I was close to collapse when I finally got home at 7.30 that evening, where I found a letter from my local mental health team saying that, as I hadn’t attended an interview they had set up, I was being taken off their list for action. The only ‘help’ they gave me was to put me through hell. If my employers hadn’t found out what I was going through and provided me with three sessions with a therapist, I would have killed myself.
Thanks, Mr Hunt.