A MENTAL health charity yesterday condemned staff at Broadmoor
hospital for moving towards industrial action over the introduction of a
more liberal regime.
More than 650 nurses at the high-security Berkshire hospital will be
balloted over industrial action in protest at the regime, under which
they say patients have made at least 90 attacks on staff so far this
year.
The Prison Officers' Association is also considering balloting members
over industrial action at Britain's two other high-security hospitals,
Rampton and Ashworth.
A new ''non-seclusion'' policy allows some of Britain's most dangerous
men and women more freedom inside Broadmoor.
A psychologist was attacked while interviewing a patient, a male nurse
had his ear ripped, and a woman nurse was punched to the ground and
kicked in recent incidents, POA officials said.
However, the health charity Mind said report after report had proved
that seclusion or solitary confinement should not be used to punish
people with severe mental health problems.
''The Prison Officers' Association seems determined to cling on to
this approach, but rather than defusing volatile situations, the use of
seclusion simply stokes up future problems,'' policy director Liz Sayce
said.
A better approach would be to improve training and support for staff
and facilities for patients, such as gyms, to allow them to let off
steam safely, she added.
Frank Mone, POA branch chairman, dismissed the Mind view. ''It is all
very well to say that sitting some distance away. They are not sitting
there getting attacked by patients,'' he said.
Violent patients could no longer be locked up, and since January 1 the
rate of attacks had doubled on last year, he claimed. At least 30% of 90
attacks on staff resulting in injuries were a direct result of the
non-seclusion policy, he added.
A Broadmoor spokeswoman said the number of attacks by patients on
staff was monitored closely by the hospital's management.
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