Broadmoor Hospital (Hansard, 12 July 2000)

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, patients at Broadmoor Hospital are not permitted to have access to mobile telephones.

§ Lord Skelmersdale
My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for that Answer. Can he explain, if patients are banned from having mobile telephones and, I assume, tape recorders, cameras and the like, why those items were found among patients' belongings in Broadmoor? Also, why have two nurses been suspended? That may or may not have anything to do with those banned pieces of equipment. But what on earth is going on in Broadmoor?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, I believe the noble Lord refers to an incident that occurred in May when a patient alleged that other patients were arranging to produce photographs and tape material about high profile Broadmoor Hospital patients which, it was stated, were to be sold to journalists. As a result of that allegation a ward was searched and a number of prohibited items were found, including a mobile phone and camera. I agree that that is an extremely serious matter. As a result, the hospital is undertaking an inquiry, chaired by a member of the hospital's board. That will be completed, I hope, by early September and will be considered in open session by the full hospital board.

§ Lord Laming
My Lords, at a time when there is concern over the incident referred to, will the Minister take this opportunity to acknowledge that in 232 Broadmoor there are some remarkable members of staff who are doing outstanding work with some extremely dangerous patients?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, I am happy to reiterate that sentiment. All too often we hear about the problems in special hospitals. Indeed, the series of inquiries that have taken place over the past 10 to 15 years indicated many difficulties. But we should not underestimate the dedication of the staff in dealing with incredibly difficult situations.

§ Lord Clement-Jones
My Lords, I associate myself with the remarks of the noble Lord. Lord Laming, and the Minister in relation to the staff at Broadmoor. The Minister did not mention the review of security procedures in Broadmoor recently carried out by Sir Richard Tilt. He made a number of recommendations, one of which was that almost one-third of patients currently in Broadmoor did not actually need to be there and that if more secure regional units existed they could be housed there. That would mean that those who need top security in Broadmoor could have it. Can the Minister comment on that?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, I agree with those comments. Sir Richard's report was extremely helpful. It made over 80 recommendations in relation to security issues, all of which the Government accepted. We are speeding on to implementation over the next couple of years. There is no doubt that we need to move patients on from high security hospitals when they no longer need to be there. We have changed the funding system so that there is no longer a perverse incentive for the health service not to take patients from Broadmoor and similar hospitals. We are also ensuring that, through the expenditure of an additional £25 million over a three-year period recurrent, the movement of patients no longer needing high security will be facilitated. We need to press on with that.

§ The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, can the Minister say how extensive the support is for staff in Broadmoor? How much money a year is spent on the training of staff? Also, what is the ratio of staff to prisoners?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, I do not have details of the training budget, but I shall make inquiries in that regard. The latest information is; that there are 422 patients in Broadmoor; a whole-time equivalent staff of 1,276 and a budget of £49.2 million. Training is extremely important. It is also important to integrate the special hospitals with the rest of' the health service. We will then see a better flow of staff moving from mental health services in general into the special hospitals and vice versa. Approval has been given to create a new mental health trust in West London which will incorporate Broadmoor Hospital and which I am sure will help the support for staff in their training and development.

§ Lord Astor of Hever
My Lords a recent report, Finding and Keeping by the Sainsbury Centre for 233 Mental Health, reveals serious mental health understaffing and staff demoralised by increased bureaucracy and the risk of violence. What plans do the Government have to remedy that?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, I am glad to pay tribute to the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health. Clearly, as part of the general improvement that we wish to make to mental health services, including the publication of a national service framework of mental health and the additional allocation of £700 million to enable work to start in improving mental health services, we need to incorporate developments in the workforce. As part of our general approach to workforce planning, we are increasing training places and I fully expect mental health services to benefit from that.