Mental health unit criticised

No-one has been disciplined over the suicides

A report into a mental health unit in Lancashire has found that a number of suicides and attempted suicides should have been prevented.

The report into Parkwood, at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, was published by the Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority on Friday.

It looked into the deaths of 18 patients and two serious incidents between February 1999 and March 2001.

The report says there was a lack of proper management and a culture of denial, in that staff refused to accept there was a problem.

No one has been disciplined at the unit but the management team has been replaced.

A spokeswoman for the Lancashire Care Trust said: "The suicide rate at Parkwood was not higher than the national average but the deaths should have been prevented."

Pearse Butler, chief executive of the Lancashire and Cumbria Strategic Health Authority, said : "We have tried to learn lessons from each individual case. The people involved and their relatives deserve nothing less."