Daily Mail: Health trust shamed for dangerously restraining its patients: Body faces being put in special measures after using technique that can be fatal

Rosie Taylor of the Daily Mail reports:

A mental health trust where patients have been punished with a dangerous form of restraint faces being put into special measures.

Inspectors found serious problems at the body that oversees mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk.

These included patients being held in the face-down prone position and being put in seclusion as a punishment.

But a damning report into the trust released yesterday by the Care Quality Commission revealed prone restraints were not only still being carried out at the trust’s secure unit, they were being used as punishments. 

The report said: ‘Some patients told us that restraint and seclusion were used too frequently at the Norvic Clinic.

‘We were concerned about the high levels of face down (prone) restraint and that there was a punitive attitude towards patients. We observed that some episodes of restraint and seclusion may have been punitive.

‘While on the unit we saw that people who became violent were restrained and removed to the seclusion ward. Five people told us that they had been restrained and secluded following refusal to follow staff instructions. One person told us that if you do not sit correctly on the chairs you could end up being restrained and secluded.’

The CQC suggested the trust’s problems were the fault of senior management, saying there was ‘a lack of leadership, support and awareness’ in some areas.

But it praised frontline staff for being ‘kind and caring’ and rated the trust as ‘good’ in the care category. 

It was rated ‘inadequate’ overall however and the CQC has recommended to health services regulator Monitor that it go into special measures.

Click on the image below to read the story on the Daily Mail website:

Daily Mail Health trust shamed for dangerously restraining its patients Body faces being put in special measures after using technique that can be fatal

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