A new Preventing Future Death report from His Majesty’s Coroner for Birmingham and Solihull, Mr James Bennett. It touches upon the death of Mr Peter Fleming in 2022.
Mr Bennett raises a number of ‘matters of concern’ in his statutory notice, but I simply want to quote from the first of them —
“There continues to be a chronic lack of resources to treat seriously mentally ill patients in Birmingham and Solihull. In the summer of 2022 Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust (‘BSMHFT’) wanted to admit the deceased to an inpatient psychiatric unit, however, no bed was available, and he remained in the community. Shortly before his death, the deceased had been detained by the police under section 136 of the mental health act. There was no available ‘place of safety’ and he had to be taken to an emergency department.
The police, BSMHFT, and hospital Drs agreed the deceased needed to be assessed under the mental health act, however Birmingham City Council could not provide an approved mental health practitioner (‘AMPH’) [sic] to attend in a 24-hour period. When the section 136 lapsed the deceased was discharged home after a review by a mental health nurse. At the time of his death the deceased was on BSMHFT’s waiting list for a care- coordinator. The lack of care-coordinators, mental health inpatient beds, ‘place of safety’, and AMHPs, presents a risk seriously mentally ill people are not receiving necessary treatment.
The evidence is that these issues are a consequence of a chronic lack of resources at a local and national level. The Birmingham and Solihull coroners have been repeating identical concerns in Prevention of Future Death Reports for many years.”
[The bold is my emphasis.]
Just speaks for itself, doesn’t it?
Winner of the President’s Medal,
the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Winner of the Mind Digital Media Award
All opinions expressed are my own – they do not represent the views of any organisation.
(c) Michael Brown, 2023
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