Carstairs patients transfer move

The high-security State Hospital provides psychiatric care

Up to half the patients at Scotland's top security hospital, including several killers, could be transferred to lower security units.

The chief executive of the State Hospital at Carstairs is reported as wanting to cut bed numbers at the institution from 240 to 140 by 2011.

It is understood that some patients not requiring high security will be moved to medium secure units.

These may include Edinburgh's Orchard Clinic and the Rowanbank in Glasgow.

Once there, patients would be subject to less strict rules, and eventually allowed out on their own.

Patients can only be moved from Carstairs if they are deemed not to pose too great a risk to the public.

Sex offenders

The move comes amid fears that patients kept in an "excessive" levels of security could sue the government under the European Convention on Human Rights.

It is also in line with new national mental health policy to provide appropriate local services.

The psychiatric hospital at Carstairs looks after some of the country's most dangerous patients, including infamous killers and sex offenders.

Two-thirds are referred from court or prison. The remaining third have committed no crime.

Chief executive at Carstairs, Andreana Adamson, told the Herald newspaper that a new hospital would be built on the existing site with 100 fewer beds and no facilities for women.

Female patients, who make up a small number of the patients, will be cared for locally.

National shortage

Ms Adamson told the newspaper: "The new hospital will ensure patients are treated in accommodation appropriate to their needs in an environment that supports their rehabilitation."

The planned changes, which include an increase in medium secure places, will improve patient care and treatment, she said.

It would speed up the transfer of those considered suitable for a lower security setting, she went on.

Previously, they have had to wait up to five years for a place due to a national shortage.

The State Hospital at Carstairs is Scotland's only high-security hospital.

It provides assessment and care in high-security conditions for people with mental disorder who, because of the danger they pose to the public, cannot be cared for in other institutions.