Cole-Hamilton: Government must explain why Skye House allegations were missed
In a letter to the Scottish Health Secretary, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has called on the government to explain to parliament why allegations of cruelty at the country’s largest child psychiatric hospital were missed.
Former patients at Skye House, run by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, have told a BBC Disclosure investigation that the hospital was like ‘hell’. They describe being excessively medicated and sedated and how nursing staff quickly resorted to force, with some labelling patients as ‘pathetic’, ‘disgusting’ and mocking their suicide attempts.
Mr Cole-Hamilton is calling on the Scottish Government to explain why these issues were missed until now, despite the Mental Welfare Commission visiting Skye House six times since 2017.
Mr Cole-Hamilton’s letter to the Scottish Health Secretary, Neil Gray, is as follows:
Dear Neil,
I am writing to you following allegations of a culture of cruelty at Skye House, uncovered by a recent BBC Scotland Disclosure investigation.
Several former patients at Skye House describe how the hospital was like ‘hell’ and more akin to a ‘prison kind of environment’. They talk about staff excessively medicating and sedating them. They recall nursing staff calling them ‘pathetic’, ‘disgusting’ and mocking their suicide attempts, telling them that they’d ‘need to try harder next time’.
Some even talk about being made to clean up their own blood after a self-harm incident, or their own vomit after being fed through a nasogastric tube.
These were extremely vulnerable young people, no older than fourteen in some cases, who went to this hospital to receive treatment and support; they went there to get better. Instead, they have described how they were punished and traumatised, simply because they were unwell.
As you will be aware, the Mental Welfare Commission is a body accountable to the Scottish Government. Part of their role is to inspect care settings providing treatment to those with mental illness. According to their website, the Commission can: “instigate full-scale investigations where care or treatment have gone wrong only when the case appears to show serious failings and has implications for services across Scotland.”
The Commission visited Skye House on six occasions from 2017, within the time that the young people quoted in the BBC investigation were patients at the hospital. The Commission’s subsequent published reports, however, do not feature any of the main issues raised in the investigation.
In light of this, will you now make a statement to the Scottish Parliament as soon as it returns from February recess to address these allegations and explain why they were never caught at an earlier stage? I think it is also imperative that this statement should:
- Explain why the issues highlighted by young people in the BBC investigation were never raised in any of the Mental Welfare Commission’s published reports after they inspected the facility on six occasions.
- Clarify the powers of the Mental Welfare Commission and whether this is a body that can take appropriate action in cases described by the BBC investigation.
- If this power does not fall to the Mental Welfare Commission, clarify which body has the power to take appropriate action and why this does not appear to have happened in the cases described by the BBC investigation.
It is critical that the Scottish Government gives these issues the time and attention they deserve, and this should begin with a statement to the Scottish Parliament on the matter as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP
Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader