HC Deb 11 June 1998 vol 313 cc672-3W
Ms Julie Morgan

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many ECT treatments were carried out in the Bro Taf Health Authority in each of the last five years; and how many of these were carried out without the consent of the patient.[45000]

Mr. Win Griffiths

Centrally held statistics are not robust for the years in question. The best indication of the number of ECT treatments comes from a Welsh Office-funded survey of the first 6 months of 1996. This showed that in the Bro Taf area over that period a total of 90 patients received this treatment. The mean number of treatments per patient was 6.75 per completed course of treatment.

ECT treatment may not be administered to informal patients without consent, and may only be administered to formally detained patients in very exceptional circumstances. The Mental Health Act Commission monitors the proper use of the Act, including the administration of ECT. The survey quoted above shows that in the first 3 months of 1996, in all of Wales, 161 patients commenced ECT treatment, of whom 12 received it without their consent.