Mental health care in capital 'fails patients'

Nearly a quarter of London mental health trusts are failing to provide proper care for patients, a report warns today.

Vulnerable people, including women and teenagers at risk of self-harm, are being treated on understaffed, unsafe and often overcrowded wards alongside drug users.

Psychiatric hospitals are also failing to stop thousands of patients who are held under the Mental Health Act from escaping, the report found.

An inquiry by the Government's health standards watchdog the Healthcare Commission highlights huge variations in the level of psychiatric care provided across the capital.

The report shows that detained patients, sectioned for their own safety or because they posed a threat to others, absconded 2,745 times during the six months to March last year.

The commission estimated that each year more than 200 harm themselves or others once they escape.

In September 2004, paranoid schizophrenic John Barrett stabbed 50-year-old cyclist Denis Finnegan to death in Richmond Park after escaping from Springfield hospital in Tooting the night before.

The report found that safety, overcrowding on wards, staffing levels and the number of staff being physically abused were major issues in London.