Police ask hospitals to share patient details to help cut City suicides

Police in the City say they are seeing an increase in people making repeat attempts to end their lives
Justin Davenport12 September 2016

Hospitals and mental health trusts are being urged to give patient details to police after the number of suicides and attempted suicides in the Square Mile doubled in the first eight months of this year.

Officers in the City say they are seeing an increase in people making repeat attempts to end their lives.

This year there have been 58 suicides and attempts in the Square Mile compared with 57 in all of 2015.

Superintendent Paul Clements, of the City of London Police, said: “We have seen a 100 per cent increase [in suicides and attempts] so far this year.”

In particular there has been an increase in people attempting to take their lives from bridges.

Officers are making more use of Section 136 of the Mental Health Act to take people to a place of safety, usually a hospital. But ambulances are often unavailable so officers resort to using police vans. Mr Clements said: “We are almost criminalising people by transporting them in police vehicles.

“Invariably, when patients are assessed they are not deemed to meet the threshold of admission to a mental health clinic and are released.”

Police are asking NHS Trusts to provide details of patients so they know if they have been released.

Mr Clements said: “It may be using Section 136 is not the right thing to do; we could take them home to relatives, for instance. Having this information means we can put a plan in place to safeguard them.”

Homerton Hospital is for the first time telling police the outcome of referrals.

City police have also set up a Bridges Working Group including officials from NHS mental health trusts, the Samaritans, the RNLI and Coastguard.

For confidential support call Samaritans on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or attend a local branch.

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