No respite for ministers until wards scandal is ended

Posted Wednesday 9 May 2007

Commenting ahead of publication of the Deparatment of Health's mixed-sex wards report, Sophie Corlett, Mind's policy director, said:

"We're very glad that the Department of Health is now acknowledging the scale of this problem. But there must be no respite for ministers until the grim conditions on our mental health wards have been vastly improved. Mental health wards should be the most safe and comforting of all places, yet at the moment, for many people they are the most fearful."

• The Healthcare Commission's Count Me In census, released in March, found that a staggering 55 per cent of mental health patients surveyed last year were accommodated in mixed-sex wards, contrary to Government claims.
• A National Patient Safety Agency report last year revealed the scale of rape and sexual assault on mental health wards - figures in themselves mask substantial under-reporting.

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