HOSPITAL STAFF JOIN WITH POLICE TO CUT DRUGS USE

Staff at an Inverness psychiatric hospital have joined forces with Northern
Constabulary to crack down on the use of illegal drugs.

New Craigs Hospital staff contacted the police after patients who had been
taking cannabis and amphetamine began threatening staff with violence and
intimidating patients to prevent them reporting the situation.

The problem came to light about two weeks ago, when it was discovered that
patients authorised to leave the hospital during the day were returning at
night with drugs and making them available to other patients.

The hospital's service-development manager Michael Perera said police were
called in when the behaviour of some patients changed because of the drugs.

"There was a suspicion of dealing going on in the hospital and there was
increasingly unacceptable behaviour and abuse towards staff as a result of
illegal drug abuse," he said.

"There was verbal abuse, threats of violence and intimidation to patients
and staff. We have a legal obligation to provide as low-risk as possible a
working environment for staff.

"Obviously, they accept working in this profession is challenging, but it
should not be challenging because of illegal drug abuse."

A police spokesman said officers had gone to the hospital and confiscated
what appeared to be illegal drugs from patients, but no charges had been
brought.

Mr Perera said the hospital was limited in its actions by the Mental Health
Act, adopted by the Scottish Parliament in May.

The act allows staff to approach patients suspected of carrying illegal
drugs and ask them to hand them over. However, staff are not permitted to
search the patient if this request is refused.

If drugs are found, the hospital can force patients to leave only if they
are attending the centre voluntarily. Patients attending on the orders of a
court cannot be forced to leave.

However, police can go to the hospital, carry out searches, confiscate any
drugs they find and report the matter to the procurator fiscal.

Mr Perera said: "These things do happen from time to time, but we had to
contact police this time because the situation was escalating.

"The drugs were undermining the treatment patients were receiving from the
hospital and, by taking the drugs, they were not co-operating. But the rule
of thumb here is that patients are first approached and given the
opportunity to hand over the drugs. If they do so, the drugs are destroyed
and the person can be referred to drug-misuse services for help."

In a further effort to tackle the problem, police this week agreed to
increase sniffer-dog patrols in the hospital grounds.

And New Craigs is taking legal advice on plans to install closed-circuit TV
cameras to monitor the grounds and public areas inside the hospital.