Ill man told to 'drink warm milk'

Crawford Buchan explains what happened when he called the NHS'

A Perth man has criticised the out-of-hours service provided to psychiatric patients after he was told to "drink a glass of warm milk".

Crawford Buchan, who has bipolar disorder, tried to kill himself and attacked his father after he could not get a face-to-face appointment.

He had tried to get help from his local psychiatric hospital and NHS 24.

NHS Tayside does have a crisis centre, but said Mr Buchan was not registered because he had been well for years.

NHS 24 said it had good links with out-of-hours psychiatric nurses where they existed.

Mr Buchan started to become unwell on a Thursday evening. He phoned NHS 24 and was put through to a psychiatric nurse who faxed his psychiatrist.

Fifth call

However, the psychiatrist was busy with other commitments.

Mr Buchan did not hear anything on Friday, so over the weekend he called NHS 24 a further four times. At this stage he had not slept for more than 48 hours.

"NHS 24 suggested a few things," he said.

"But the final call - the fifth call that I made to NHS 24 - they suggested that I drink warm milk, which was obviously no use to me."

Fortunately my dad drove down the road and managed to get there on time Crawford Buchan

NHS 24 stressed that the advice had been given by a community psychiatric nurse to whom the call had been passed.

Things got so bad for Mr Buchan that he phoned his parents to say he was going to commit suicide.

He said: "Basically this was a last call and fortunately my dad drove down the road and managed to get there on time.

"I was going to hang myself on the back of my door."

On the Sunday the ambulance and police were called to take Mr Buchan to hospital - but he was not admitted and he attacked his father.

Mr Buchan was then sectioned and spent the next four weeks in a specialist psychiatric ward.

Advice and support

He has now called for more to be done for others who find themselves in his situation.

"There's nobody that knows you better than yourself and I certainly feel that I know when I'm getting unwell," Mr Buchan said.

"It's imperative that people with bipolar are listened to when they say 'look, I don't think I'm right'."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "While we can't discuss this individual case, it is important to make clear that community out-of-hours mental health services are in place for all those who need them across Scotland.

"NHS 24 also run Breathing Space, a late evenings and early hours telephone line which allows people to access advice and support and be connected to other services in an emergency situation.

"In November 2006, we published national standards for emergencies and we expect all NHS boards to follow these to the letter."