New report on Mental Welfare Commission visit to State Hospital Iona and Lewis wards - 21 October 2020

The Mental Welfare Commission today published a local visit report on its visit to Iona and Lewis wards at the State Hospital.

This was the first Commission local visit to take place since March 2020 when pandemic restrictions were introduced.

Alison Thomson, executive director (nursing) at the Mental Welfare Commission, said:

“Patients at the State Hospital are already subject to the highest level of restriction and we wanted to give patients an opportunity to speak with the Commission due to the additional Covid 19 restrictions at this time.

“We were particularly interested in hearing about the impact of Covid on patient care, the effect of additional restrictions, contact with relatives, activity, access to outside space, and the mental health of patients.

“We will be keen to hear more about these issues on future local visits to other hospitals as we begin a phased reintroduction of our local visits programme.”

FINDINGS

The Commission found that a significant issue on the wards has been restrictions on hospital visiting during the pandemic. Physical visiting had only just been resumed and was limited to one family member. Keeping patients in contact with families was a priority throughout, and most were able to maintain telephone contact where appropriate. Each ward also now has a video call facility.

The Commission found that most patients have generally coped well with the lockdown experience. There were some individual concerns from patients and relatives who have specific complaints.

The Commission has frequently highlighted the significant difficulties related to patient movement in the forensic estate, particularly related to patients moving from higher to lower levels of security. Pandemic restrictions have exacerbated this situation. At time of writing of the report, 11 patients at the State Hospital had successfully appealed against excessive security and were awaiting moves to medium security hospitals. The Commission is concerned that the rights of these patients to move to lower levels of security are not being met.

The full report is available here.

Notes to editors

This local visit was undertaken using a combination of telephone contact with staff and managers prior to (and after) the visit - which took place on 18 August 2020 - and interviews, in person with patients and ward staff on the wards at the State Hospital on the day of the visit. Patients from Iona and Lewis hubs had also been offered the opportunity of telephone or video interviews prior to the visit, but no patients chose to do so.  

The Mental Welfare Commission usually undertakes over 100 local visits a year to wards, units and prisons across Scotland, and publishes reports on each, highlighting positive and negative findings. Where it makes recommendations for change, the Commission expects a response within three months.

From August 2020 the Commission is undertaking a phased return to its visit programme following the recommendations in the Scottish Government’s route map to recovery.

The Commission publishes local visit reports once a month on its website.

Local visit reports by health board