6:00pm Thursday 11th March 2010
By Peter Magill
MORE than one patient with mental health difficulties is disappearing each week from hospital wards in East Lancashire, according to new figures.
People going ‘absent without leave’ (AWOL) from wards at the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General Hospitals is the highest rate in the county.
But health bosses say that the number of times these ‘escapes’ lead to serious incidents is at the lowest level for a year.
Sixteen out of the 28 disappearances, reported by the county’s mental health services provider, Lancashire Care NHS Trust, for the last quarter are in East Lancashire.
Quarter by quarter, there is a leap from 21 to cases, towards the end of 2009, as detailed in a report by nursing director Patrick Sullivan and medical director Max Marshall.
The female acute unit on Hyndburn Ward, within the Pendleview unit at the former Queen’s Park Hospital in Blackburn, and Ward 20, an adult acute psychiatric unit at Burnley General, account for 11 AWOL cases.
Mr Sullivan, in the report to Lancashire Care’s board, said: “The number of AWOLs will be monitored during the next quarter.
“The number of AWOLs leading to a serious or untoward incident is at its lowest over the last six quarters at 7.4 per cent.”
The numbers of serious incidents in Blackburn with Darwen and East Lancashire are also significantly higher, at 14 and eight respectively, than other Lancashire health areas for the same quarter.
Mr Sullivan added: “An increase of incidents was noted in the last quarter for Blackburn with Darwen.
"Two patients were reported with fractures during the last quarter.
"The first suffered two broken ribs in Ward L3 at Blackburn and a second patient was left with a broken pubic bone at Altham Meadows, a dementia unit.”
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