Mental Health: Beds

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Tuesday 29th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, on the very last point, I do not have up-to-date figures, but I will certainly write to the noble Lord. However, on his main question, detention as a mechanism solely to secure access to hospital treatment would not be lawful. If hospitals or local authority staff think that that is happening or feel pressurised to admit people in that way, they should report it to their trust and, if necessary, to the Care Quality Commission. Sectioning under the Mental Health Act, which denies people their liberty, is a very serious matter. It should be done only when a person is a risk either to themselves or to other people and, as the noble Lord knows, it is a legal process. A patient cannot be sectioned merely to secure a bed.

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, the survey referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Bradley, was of junior doctors in the Royal College of Psychiatrists. If it was somewhat anecdotal and they felt that they were unable to report it formally, can Ministers ask NHS England to ensure that there is a survey of how many doctors are having to use sectioning, to prevent this continuing?

[Earl Howe]

It certainly is important that we get to the bottom of what is really happening. We take this issue very seriously. The Care Quality Commission intends to explore the issue of people being detained in order to access psychiatric units in its ongoing review of emergency mental health care. The findings of that review will be published later this year. The CQC’s Mental Health Act commissioner regularly and routinely looks at the lawfulness of detention. In fact, the Care Quality Commission is currently developing a new approach to its responsibilities as a regulator of the 1983 Act.