§ Mrs. Betty WilliamsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health on how many occasions patients have absconded from medium secure units in the last three years, and from334W which units; and on how many of those occasions (a) it was assessed that there was a risk to the public and (b) members of the public were assaulted or threatened. [87044]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 15 June 1999]: The Department does not collect data centrally on the number of patients who either escape from National Health Service trust medium secure units or abscond while on leave.
Information on escapes and absconding is routinely collected by each health authority as part of its contract monitoring. Only the most serious incidents are reported to the NHS regional office and would not, for example, include those where a patient goes missing for a minute or two on escorted leave or where a patient returned late by a few minutes from home leave.
The present arrangements require the most serious incidents to be reported by health authorities to regional offices.
The Department is currently reviewing the collection of data relating to escapes and absconds from medium secure units.