ILLEGAL DRUGS 'COMMON' ON WARDS

The head of a psychiatric hospital admits more than one in seven
patients takes illegal drugs on the wards.

In recent weeks patients have smoked crack cocaine inside Chase Farm
Hospital, in north London, while others have smuggled cocaine inside fast food.

Meanwhile, a BBC survey suggests there is a laissez faire attitude to
drug use in NHS mental health trusts.

Some said they would not automatically call the police if they
discovered drugs dealers on their premises.

There are strong links between mental health problems, the taking of
illegal drugs and violence, with one major study finding that
psychiatric patients with drugs problems kill up to 32 people every year.

One patient was using a bed sheet to drop out of his window to pick
up drugs from a dealer below Samuel Ankara, nurse

But Oliver Treacy, borough director for mental health services for
Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust, admitted: "It is
quite common that patients will use drugs on wards.

"It can make patients worse and it can actually introduce a sense of
desperation and violence."

He estimated that up to 14% of patients in some wards at Chase Farm
were currently taking drugs on the premises.

That is a reduction from a high of 20% in recent years, a figure
which had prompted extra security measures, said Mr Treacy.

"It prompted us to address this issue and bring in procedures and
policies that bring it to the situation we are in today, which is the
impression that we are managing the situation."

Sniffer dogs

Human rights legislation prevents hospitals from randomly searching
patients so Chase Farm has brought in sniffer dogs to regularly sweep
the wards.

Drugs workers helping in-patients at the hospital said one patient
recently took crack cocaine on the ward.

One nurse said it was difficult to stop all illegal drugs entering
the hospital.

Samuel Ankara said: "One patient was using a bed sheet to drop out of
his window to pick up drugs from a dealer below, then another one
tried to bring in drugs hidden inside a kebab."

There are no national figures showing how widespread illegal drugs
are on psychiatric wards.

However, one study in north London concluded that almost half of the
patients in some hospitals continued feeding their habit on NHS property.

Peter Phillips, a former nurse, spent several months on wards in
Camden and Islington, London.

He found that almost half the patients in hospitals admitted to
taking illegal drugs before admission, and of these, the great
majority, 83%, admitted to drug use on the wards.

Drug user

Typical of the inpatients on wards who continue to buy and use
illegal drugs is Chris, who is currently detained on a ward in London
after being diagnosed with bi-polar depression, which means he
suffers from violent mood swings.

The 24-year-old, who has three children, has been in and out of
psychiatric wards since 2001.

He says his condition is linked to his drugs use.

"I have seen patients in other wards and they're meant to be mentally
ill and they doing crack, but I don't get involved in that."

Chris, whose name has been changed for legal reasons, admits to
smoking cannabis on the ward.

"I've smoked cannabis in the smoking room and the staff noticed but
they let me get away with it."

Differing policies

Experts say the problem is not helped by the fact that different NHS
trusts have different policies on dealing with the issue.

BBC Radio's Five Live Report conducted a sample survey of some dozen
mental health trusts around the country to find out what their
policies were when drugs are found on wards.

Asked what they would do if they found patients dealing in drugs on
the ward, five NHS trusts said they would not automatically contact the police.

Asked what they would do about patients found in possession of drugs,
six trusts said they would not automatically call the police.

Asked finally what they would do if a visitor was suspected of
smuggling in drugs, four trusts said again that they would not
automatically call the police.