§ Mr. GunnellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many mental health patients detained in hospital received ECT(a) having given informal consent in advance, (b) not having given consent but having had the matter put to a second opinion appointed doctor and (c) having given no consent and not having the matter referred to a second opinion appointed doctor between November 2000 and February 2001; and how this data compare to that for the period November 1999 to February 2000. [156671]
§ Mr. HuttonThe information is not available in the form requested. A survey covering the period from January 1999 to March 1999 was undertaken to provide an up to date and accurate snapshot picture of the use of electro-convulsive treatment (ECT) in England. During that period 2,800 patients received ECT treatment, 75 per cent. of ECT patients were not formally detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 and of those patients formally detained while receiving ECT treatment, 29 per cent. consented to ECT, 12 per cent. were treated as an emergency and 59 per cent. did not consent to treatment but were treated after a second opinion was obtained. The latter figure represented those patients who were unable to consent because of the serious nature of their illness. As a proportion of all ECT patients, those not consenting represented about 15 per cent.
The results of the survey are contained in the Department of Health Statistical bulletin "Electro Convulsive Therapy: Survey covering the period from January 1999 to March 1999, England", a copy of which is in the Library.