Sir Simon Wessely, former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, conducted a probe (Image: File)
Overdue reforms to “outdated Victorian rules” form part of a new push to end a litany of appalling mental health tragedies.
Experts said the killings of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates by schizophrenic Valdo Calocane could have been prevented.
A catalogue of errors in Calocane’s treatment led to him being discharged, despite repeatedly not taking his medication and showing signs of aggression, months before the atrocity in Nottingham last year.
A probe into the treatment h e received from Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust found “the risk he presented to the public was not managed well”.
Professor Sir Simon Wessely, who chaired an independent review of the Mental Health Act , said the time had now come to “modernise the act and to do so without jeopardising the safety of the public” .
And today the Mental Health Bill , which would update the 1983 Act covering the assessment, treatment and rights of t hose with a mental health disorder , has its Second Reading in the House of Lords with new provisions to give patients greater say in their care.
Last year, more than 50,000 people were detained under the Act, but an independent review chaired by psychiatrist Professor Sir Simon, President of the Royal Society of Medicine, found rising rates of detention, racial disparities, and poor patient experience, especially for autistic people and those with a learning disability, with patients detained unnecessarily and for longer than needed.
At the end of October 1,880 people with a learning disability or autism were detained in hospital under the Act.
If passed, the length of time they can be detained if they do not have a co-occurring mental health condition that needs hospital treatment and have not committed a criminal offence will be limited.
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Mr Streeting says the Mental Health Act is ‘hugely outdated’ and needs reform (Image: PA)
Proposals would also make it a legal requirement for every patient to have a care and treatment plan with rights to access a so-called advance choice document to set out what they want their care to look like in the event of a mental health crisis.
It aims to encourage patients to remain in contact with health services and continue to engage with treatment.
Police and prison cells will also no longer be used to place those who need care under the Act. Instead, patients will access a “suitable healthcare facility” to support their needs.
Wes Streeting, Health and Social Care Secretary, said: “The Mental Health Act is there to protect people when they’re at their most vulnerable, and in many cases, it has saved lives. But it is hugely outdated, depriving people of their liberty, especially autistic people and people with a learning disability.
“We are now one step closer to bringing forward the essential reforms that will transform the care of some of our most vulnerable people, meaning patients receive the right care in the right place.
“Modernising the act will strengthen the decision-making processes, helping to better support people, and giving them the appropriate and compassionate care they need.”
Calocane, then 32, killed Ms O’Malley-Kumar and Mr Webber, both 19 and students, and Mr Coates, 65, a school caretaker, in a knife rampage in the early hours of June 13 last year. He then stole Coates’ van and drove into three pedestrians who were seriously injured.
Earlier this year he was handed a hospital order for manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility due to paranoid schizophrenia, which experts concluded had caused him to embark on the knife rampage.
Barnaby’s mum Emma is comforted by Lee Coates, son of Ian Coates, who was also killed by Calocane (Image: Joseph Raynor/ Reach PLC)
A review into the trust found officials missed at least eight chances to stop Calocane killing.
One doctor issued a warning three years before the atrocity, yet he was discharged back to his GP in September 2022. Nine months later he killed friends Barnaby and Grace, a medical student who had just finished her first year at University of Nottingham, as they returned from a night out, and Mr Coates.
New legal measures include requiring clinicians to seek a second opinion before discharging a patient.
Claire Murdoch, NHS national mental health director, said: “This Mental Health Bill is a once in a generation opportunity to ensure patients experiencing serious mental illness and crises receive safe, modern, evidence-based care, and the needs and wishes of patients and their loved ones are central to their care and better mental health outcomes.
“This comes alongside the NHS’s work to transform mental health services which are treating record numbers with existing resources.”
A public inquiry will be held to examine in further detail the events which led to Calocane’s stabbing spree
Barnaby’s mum Emma Webber, 52, said: “The failings are so systemic and so gross it’s a catalogue of continual failures for years.
“It’s not a one off tragedy. There are more Valdo Calocane’s out in our community. I’ve always said since the beginning of this year when we were able to talk after the sentencing that it is a case of when it happens again and not if – and it has happened again and it’s going to continue unless things drastically change.