Yes, yes I know I keep harping on about the state of psychiatric services in this country, but the fact that this mental health patient murdered and dismembered someone shows you what I worry about. This patient was discharged from Newham General and the investigation is going to look at how he came to be released. I suspect he was diagnosed with “personality disorder” which is untreatable with medication – and so the patient is discharged.
When I was an A+E nurse I had to spend all night trying to get a violent patient Sectioned (detained for psychiatric assessment without the patients consent) The social worker was extremely reluctant to do this, and I only managed to convince her when I explained that at 8 o'clock when security left, the patient would be free to leave the hospital – and it would be her face on the front of the tabloids when he killed someone.
He was sectioned 10 minutes later.