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Patient's death
'reveals festering NHS racism' Institutional racism is rife throughout the mental health service of the NHS according to an independent inquiry into the "unnecessary and tragic" death of a black man restrained at a secure clinic in Norwich. The inquiry said that institutional racism was "a festering abscess, a blot on the good name of the NHS". Black patients are wrongly perceived as being "aggressive to start with", and frequently put on higher doses of anti-psychotic drugs than Caucasians, the inquiry team said. The situation is so serious that ethnic minority communities often "fear the NHS" rather than admire it. Dr Girish Shetty, a consultant psychiatrist at the clinic, said: "There is a risk in places like Norwich that people never develop the awareness and skills to deal with black people because there are so few of them." Sir John Blofeld, a retired High Court judge, published his inquiry's report - the culmination of a lengthy investigation into the death of the schizophrenic patient six years ago - at a Westminster press conference yesterday. Jamaican-born David "Rocky" Bennett, 38, of Peterborough, Cambs, was described as "full of life, with big dreams" before he became mentally ill at 20. Sir John said he had a "lovely personality". He achieved five GSCEs, but left his job as a sign writer and developed emotional and behavioural problems which one doctor attributed to cannabis. Family concerns about Mr Bennett's care were generally ignored and relatives said they were seen as "over emotional" or a nuisance. Mr Bennett died when he was restrained face down on the ground by at least three nurses at the clinic after attacking another patient who had racially abused him, and punching a female nurse. Mr Bennett's sister Joanna, a mental health academic at the Sainsbury Centre for mental health, said: "When it was finally realised he had collapsed, there was no urgency to try to resuscitate him. It breaks my heart every time I think about that night." Relatives believe Mr Bennett was on so much unauthorised medication when he died that the level of drugs in his system could have caused his heart to stop when he was restrained. The inquiry team's conclusions echo the 1999 Macpherson Report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, which identified "institutional racism" in the police. "Black and minority ethnic communities have a fear of the NHS: that if they engage with the mental health services they will be 'locked up for a very long time, if not for life, and treated with medication which may eventually kill them'," the team said. Ministers should acknowledge the presence of institutional racism in mental health, train mental health workers in cultural awareness and sensitivity, and ban the restraint of patients in a prone position for longer than three minutes. Sir John, who made 17 other recommendations, said there was no instance of staff being deliberately racist but insufficient attention was paid to Mr Bennett's cultural, social and religious needs. It was imperative that new restraint procedures and records on the deaths of all psychiatric in-patients were introduced. Dr John Reid, the Health Secretary, accepted there was racism in the NHS but stopped short of using the term "institutional racism". The Government had a duty to act, he said, and Prof Kamlesh Patel, chairman of the Mental Health Act Commission, had been appointed to direct a national programme of work. Dr Reid did not mention an "ethnicity tsar", the nature of cultural awareness training or the need to act immediately on restraining procedures. Sir John acknowledged that the term "institutional racism" was controversial but said it had been accepted by a number of bodies including government departments and was "helpful to adopt in this case". It did not mean deliberate racism but unwitting prejudice and racist stereotyping. None of the medical staff involved in Mr Bennett's death have been disciplined. Some have been relocated, or retrained, and a number have been on extended sick leave.
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