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Baby P |
Baby P: who will pay to stop another tragedy?
Psychiatrist warns of ‘funding black hole’ in services
CHILDREN on the “at risk” register are being failed by the healthcare system that should routinely screen parents for psychiatric problems, a leading psychiatrist has claimed.
Adult psychiatrist and former senior lecturer at St George’s Medical School Dr Aggrey Burke, an adviser to the General Medical Council, said deaths like that of Baby P in Haringey or Ukleigha Batten-Froggatt in Somers Town in 2005 could have been avoided if parents were referred for psychiatric assessment.
He warned the crucial safety-net was at risk because of funding cuts and the complicated framework of the healthcare system.
Dr Burke said: “Society may like to see the mother in the Baby P case as some kind of evil brute, but I think she is someone who needs help and didn’t get it.
“There were so many meetings with social services, police, doctors, but the parents were never passed up for psychiatric assessment. I suspect the idea of referral was not entertained. The health system does not accord much significance to parents with these problems. We have to ask why that is.”
Baby P was seen five times in the Whittington Hospital, Archway, between December 11 and 15, 2006. On December 11, hospital GP Jerome Ikwueke found “bruising to the forehead, nose, sternum, and right shoulder/ breast”. He was referred to Haringey’s Child Abuse Investigation Team the following day and it as at this point that the parents could have been referred to a psychiatrist, according to Dr Burke.
Dr Burke says specialist centres should be set-up in inner-London boroughs, specifically to assess parents showing signs of personality disorders.
He added: “There are teams that could provide this kind of risk assessment but you have to ask: Who is going to fund it?”
Some experts claim that a decision by the House of Lords in 2005 to create a legal difference between medical and psychological assessments has led to a funding black hole in psychiatric referrals. It means local authorities like Camden cannot be held legally responsible for the mental health of its residents, and so could not be ordered by the courts to pay for referrals.
Caversham practice partner Dr Stephen Amiel, representing doctors as chairman of the Camden and Islington Londonwide Medical Committees lobby group, said: “The fact is that the care service is not set up to deal with people with these kinds of problems. It is too fragmented. We did a study at our practice of all child patients under 18 and we found that one third reached the threshold of being at risk. That is a lot, quite frankly.”
The tragic death of Baby P stirred memories of the murder of six-year-old Ukleigha Batten-Froggatt and her mother, Nicole, in Somers Town in February 2005.
Ukleigha was on Camden’s “at risk” register at time of her murder by Mark Andrew Nicholas, who was diagnosed with a personality disorder.
Nicholas pleaded guilty to two murder counts at the Old Bailey in December 2005 and following Ukleigha’s death, the council launched an inquiry into the conduct of the child protection team responsible for her safety.
A recent inspection of Camden Council’s team, undertaken by Ofsted, praised the service as “effective” and said that “all children on the child protection register are allocated to a social worker and all reviews are held on time”. |
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Your comments:
Some experts claim that a decision by the House of Lords in 2005 to create a legal difference between medical and psychological assessments has led to a funding black hole in psychiatric referrals. It means local authorities like Camden cannot be held legally responsible for the mental health of its residents, and so could not be ordered by the courts to pay for referrals.
I don't want to comment, I would like to ask a question from the paragraph above and if anyone knows more about this.
It is exceptionally disturbing to read that local authorities can not be legally responsible for the mental health of their residents.
What decision and in what context was made by the house of lords in 2005?
How can I find out?
J. Barratt
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