Commissioners publish highly critical reports on mental health services

The poor standards of care and supervision of people with severe mental health problems in NHS hospitals in England have come under the spotlight in two damning reports issued by the Care Quality Commission, which recently took over the work of the Mental Health Act Commission.

Coercion and Consent, the 13th (and final) report of the now defunct Mental Health Act Commission, looks at services throughout England and Wales between 2007 and 2009. It also looked at the causes of the 1392 deaths of detained patients between 2005 and 2008.

Of these deaths, 1123 were ascribed to natural causes, 205 to suicide, 30 to accidental causes, two to incorrect medication, and four to the intervention of a doctor (iatrogenic). The causes of death were unknown in 28 cases.

In one …