Deaths blamed on health board improvement failures

Families have warned a health board that more patients could die if lessons about poor mental health care are not learned.

A report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists found less than half of 84 recommended improvements to a hospital trust’s mental health department have been made.

In the past 10 years, four separate reviews have outlined changes to be implemented by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. Patient watchdog Llais said people had continued to die during this time.

At a meeting in Llandudno on Thursday morning, the health board, which runs the NHS in north Wales, apologised to families and said it was committed to improving.

Problems with mental health services at the health board first became public in December 2013 when the Tawel Fan dementia ward at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd near Rhyl was closed. A report said elderly patients there were treated "like animals in a zoo".

Before that, the board was aware of problems at Hergest mental health unit at Ysbyty Gwynedd in Bangor. An investigation found a culture of bullying and low morale, which meant patient safety concerns were not addressed.

During the meeting earlier, Phill Dickaty, who’s mother Joyce Dickety died on Tawel Fan in 2012, told the board families felt “let down again".

"As things stand, despite the passage of time and false reassurances offered by BCUHB, the Tawel Fan families have a real and significant concerns over the lack of progress," he said. "Be it patient or otherwise, nobody should ever have to endure a situation like Tawel Fan and the atrocities that took place. As well as the disappointment felt at the lack of progress, the risk of history repeating itself again in the future weighs heavily in the minds of Tawel Fan families."

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Source: BBC News, 29 May 2024