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Inside Out: at-risk patients abscond from Southampton psychiatric unit
An investigation by Â鶹Éç South's Inside Out programme has revealed how vulnerable
patients are absconding from a psychiatric unit in Southampton by scaling the
security fence.
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The programme - which airs tonight (Monday 9 October) at 7.30pm on Â鶹Éç ONE South -
filmed mentally ill patients climbing the 20-foot high fence at the Royal South
Hants Hospital on five different days.
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Presenter Chris Packham says he was shocked by how easy it was for patients to
abscond from the Department of Psychiatry.
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"Many of the patients have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act because
they are a danger to themselves or others," he says.
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"But they were climbing out in broad daylight, in full view of the hospital and
the CCTV cameras, and nobody made any effort to stop them."
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One mother tells the programme how her son has absconded more than 50 times in a
couple of months:
"My son is very low, I don't know if he's headed to the nearest bridge to jump. I
don't know what he has in his mind and I don't want to think about what other
patients may have in their head."
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Hampshire Partnership NHS Trust now admits that 26 different patients have
climbed the fence over the past four years.
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Chief Executive Martin Barkley tells the programme that security will be improved
and that work will start soon to make the fence harder to climb.
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But he says that some patients are free to leave anyway and he denies that
sectioned patients have been absconding on a daily basis: "The facts of the matter are that on average it has been one patient every two
months since 2002, except in July and August of this year when there has been an
escalation in that behaviour.
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"It is not a secure hospital that is geared up to keep patients in hospital who
are determined by whatever means to leave."
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But Inside Out showed its footage to the man responsible for safeguarding
sectioned patients in England.
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Chris Heginbotham, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Act Commission, says he
would be sending one of his commissioners to talk to the health trust about
security.
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"It is really very surprising that a patient was able to climb out in broad
daylight," he says.
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"The suicide rate is very high for patients who abscond, so
with any patient who is able to climb out in that way there is clearly a danger
of self harm, possibly suicide."
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Notes to Editors
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The Â鶹Éç South Inside Out programme is transmitted on Â鶹Éç ONE in the Â鶹Éç South
region.
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Digital satellite viewers can view the programme on channel 984.
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JR
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