§ Mr. Flanneryasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will institute an inquiry into the allegation made last month by a psychiatric social worker, Mr. Bruce Sachs, that patients in Middlewood hospital, Hillsborough, Sheffield, have been drugged due to staff shortages; and whether this practice occurs elsewhere in psychiatric hospitals.
§ Sir George YoungNo. Sheffield area health authority (teaching) is responsible for the management of Middlewood hospital. I am confident that it will make whatever investigations are necessary into these allegations, and that other area health authorities will monitor as necessary standards of care in other phychiatric hospitals. In prescribing treatment, including drug treatment, doctors take account of how best to meet the needs of patients in the setting in which they are being treated.