The State Hospital for Scotland and Northern Ireland[1] (also The State Hospital or Carstairs Hospital) is a psychiatric hospital providing care and treatment in conditions of high security for around 240 patients from Scotland and Northern Ireland who need to be detained in hospital under conditions of special security that can only be provided by the State Hospital. The hospital is located at 55°41′44″N 3°39′14″W / 55.69556°N 3.65389°W near the village of Carstairs, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland.
The hospital is run by the State Hospitals Board for Scotland which is a public body accountable to the First Minister of Scotland through the Scottish Government Health and Wellbeing Directorates. They are a Special Health Board, part of the NHS Scotland and the only hospital of its kind within Scotland.
The Board and the Hospital has around 700 staff.
Their aim is "to help patients recover sufficiently from their illness to enable them to be transferred to services closer to their homes. Where this is not possible, we strive to help them to cope with their disabilities, and to live their lives as fully as possible."[2]
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Security
The hospital has an alarm system that is activated if any patient escapes to alert people in the vicinity, including those in the surrounding town of Lanark, and local villages such as Ravenstruther. This alarm system is based on World War II air-raid sirens, and a two-tone alarm sounds across the whole area in the event of an escape. The system is tested on the third Thursday of every month at 1300hrs when the all clear siren, consisting of three 30 second blasts, sounds. [3]
One infamous incident of a break out happened in 1976, when two psychopathic lovers Thomas McCulloch and Robert Mone, brutally murdered a nurse, patient and a policeman in a pre-planned murder plot.[4]
Controversies
- In August 1999, a convicted killer walked free from from Carstairs after his lawyers exploited a legal loophole. Noel Ruddle, who served seven years for shooting his next door neighbour with a Kalashnikov assault rifle in 1991, was given an absolute discharge by a sheriff because his mental illness was deemed untreatable. He admitted that he has not been cured and has also boasted about beating the system.[5] A year after his release, Ruddle escaped a prison sentence for threatening to kill a priest.[6]
- In December 2004, paranoid schizophrenic Michael Ferguson was allowed an unsupervised visit to see his fiancée at East Kilbride Shopping Centre. He failed to report back to Carstairs staff two hours later as agreed. First Minister Jack McConnell ordered an urgent report into the decision to allow such a dangerous man to go on a public visit unguarded.[7]
- In September 2008, MSP's were outraged after it was revealed that taxpayers were shelling out £630,000 a year to give the only woman patient at Carstairs State Hospital a ward to herself. Labour health spokeswoman Margaret Curran said: "This defies common sense. This cannot be in the interests of the NHS or the patient... We need immediate explanation and action."[8]
- In October 2009, bosses at the psychiatric hospital were criticised by worried staff and politicians for offering inmates the chance to win £50 by solving a wordseach which would help pick names for the wards, due to open next year. One insider said: "It seems strange that some of the most dangerous criminals in the country could end up naming the new Carstairs... Perhaps the victims of some of these violent criminals will share the concerns expressed by some staff that this isn't appropriate."[4]
See also
References
- ^ http://www.jobs.scot.nhs.uk/uploads/37/Catering%20dietitian%20JD.rtf
- ^ http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/tsh/GeneralInfo/aboutus.htm
- ^ "The alarm system". The State Hospital. http://www.tsh.scot.nhs.uk/New_State_Hospital/docs/Security%20-%20Siren%20leaflet%20-%20Aug%2003.pdf. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
- ^ a b Aitken, Mark. "Carstairs killers and sex beasts given chance to win £50 in wordsearch". Sunday Mail. 18 Oct 2009
- ^ "Released killer says: 'I'm not cured'". BBC News. 5 Aug 1999
- ^ "Ruddle escapes jail over death threat". BBC News. 11 Apr 2001
- ^ "Escaped prisoner report ordered". BBC News. 8 Dec 2004
- ^ Mackinnon, Lachlan. "Revealed - the Carstairs patient who costs you £630K a year". Daily Record. 12 Sept 2008
External links
- The State Hospitals Board for Scotland - official website, at NHS Scotland
- Citizens Commission on Human Rights Report psychiatric abuse.
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