Information is available on the number of patients in contact with specialist mental health services who received inpatient treatment for a mental health condition. Data are also available on the number of people in contact with specialist mental health services who received consultant outpatient appointments for a mental health condition in each of the last five years for which data are available.
Data have been collected in respect of inpatients and outpatients treated for a mental health condition by Leicestershire Partnerships National Health Service Trust, East Midlands Strategic Health Authority and in England between 1 April 2004 and 31 March 2009. This information is shown in the following table.
The data should be used with caution as they do not record non-consultant led outpatient appointments, and they record patients who received both inpatient and outpatient treatment as inpatients only. The data therefore underestimate the total number of outpatient appointments recorded in each year.
2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust Inpatient 3,101 2,810 2,546 2,344 2,183 Outpatient 11,291 11,887 12,237 12,438 13,631 East Midlands Strategic Health Authority Inpatient 8,408 8,063 7,836 8,178 8,091 Outpatient 36,153 43,616 45,859 45,812 44,926 England Inpatient 114,435 111,088 106,561 105,719 102,571 Outpatient 446,393 488,259 474,332 470,742 477,627 Source: NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care Mental Health Minimum Data Set 2004-2009 Annual Returns.
(2) how many people have been (a) killed and (b) seriously injured by a person who has received treatment for mental health reasons (i) in Leicester, (ii) in the East Midlands and (iii) nationally in each of the last 10 years;
(3) what estimate he has made of the cost to the NHS of independent investigations commissioned relating to patients receiving treatment for mental health reasons (a) in the East Midlands and (b) nationally in each of the last five years;
(4) how many independent investigations commissioned relating to patients receiving treatment for mental health reasons have been commissioned (a) in the East Midlands and (b) nationally in each of the last five years.
Precise data on the number of homicides or serious injuries in England committed by people with mental illness are not collected centrally. However, we estimate that every year over 1,300 mental health patients take their own lives and between 50 and 70 per year are involved in taking the lives of others.
Nor does the Department collect data about homicide or serious injury committed by people with mental illness at local or regional levels. Strategic health authorities are responsible for commissioning independent investigations into adverse events in mental health services, including homicides committed by mental health service users. The Department does not collect routine information or cost data on such local investigations, and nor has there been a national estimate of their cost.
This information is not collected routinely by the Department, but is collected by strategic health authorities, who are responsible for commissioning independent investigations into patients with a mental illness.