Report 'backs Broadmoor criticism'

Report 'backs Broadmoor criticism'

By Niall Dickson BBC home affairs correspondent

Not for the first time one of the top security mental hospitals is in the news - this time the scandal prompted by a former manager at Broadmoor, Julia Wassell.

The former director of women's services at Broadmoor tells of highly vulnerable women patients subjected to bullying, harassment and rape by male patients.

She also claims she was victimised when she drew attention to this, a charge the hospital denies.

But her general allegations about the treatment of women patients are confirmed in an independent inquiry that reported to the Broadmoor authorities last year.

Details of last year's inquiry have just emerged

The inquiry team said they had no sense that the organisation had attempted to deal with this sensitive issue in a structured and thoughtful way.

It described the lack of respect and decency afforded to women by some male patients as shocking and an indictment of the staff and the organisation.

It discovered that newly admitted women were bombarded with unsolicited letters when they first arrived, which quickly moved into something more personal and explicit.

Secrecy

Other women who were in relationships with male patients often tried to persuade the new women to get involved.

The report concluded there was also bullying between women patients.

Perhaps most damning of all, the report says some nursing staff encouraged women patients to get involved with male patients in order to obtain sweets and cigarettes.

The hospital chose not to release that report to the wider world - it was simply produced at a public board meeting of the mental health trust responsible for Broadmoor.

Secrecy and cover ups have been perennial features of the high security hospitals and there will be concern that Broadmoor did not expose this highly critical report to public scrutiny.

But speaking on BBC Radio 4's World at One the Health Minister Jacqui Smith claimed acting on the inquiry's findings was more important.

"What is crucial is that we ensure the safety and that the appropriate services are provided to the women in Broadmoor," she told the programme.

She said facilities have been improved at the hospital and efforts were being made to ensure that over the next three years women can be transferred from high security hospitals to "more appropriate circumstances".

'Not up to the job'

The minister did make it clear though that all women patients would soon be moved from Broadmoor and that new single gender high secure services were now being developed.

The high secure hospitals have long struggled to balance the need to treat and care for the most volatile and dangerous patients with their need to contain them.

The idea of allowing restricted mixed activities was a genuine attempt to introduce normality.

The conclusion of this enquiry was that Broadmoor was simply not up to the job.

Many applaud the government continuing efforts to integrate these large institutions with mainstream mental health services.

And yet these latest revelations will be further ammunition for those who argue the big hospitals are beyond reform and should have been replaced with smaller regional units some years ago.