Warning of patient deaths at state hospital

The deaths of 14 patients with learning difficulties and autism at Scotland’s state hospital and other institutions show how people are “falling through the cracks” in secure care, an MSP has warned.

Aberdeenshire Tory Alexander Burnett obtained the official figures as part of his campaign to tackle the “national scandal” of keeping otherwisehealthy individuals in secure care.

The Scottish Government said patient care is a priority and it is not possible to draw conclusions about the cause of deaths from the data.

However, some parents have previously claimed their autistic children are being detained at facilities such as Carstairs state hospital indefinitely against their own wishes.

Concerns have been also been raised over the quality of care at the South Lanarkshire hospital, with past accusations of mistreatment.

In 2020, the mother of Kyle Gibbon, then aged 32, from Kemnay, told The Sunday Post how her son had been locked up in Carstairs for a decade.

It was reported that young adults with autism are being kept in wards at the hospital because there are no other suitable alternatives.

New data from Public Health Scotland shows more than a dozen patients with learning difficulties died at the state hospital and other facilities since 2015.

Three of those deaths occurred between April and December last year.

MSP Mr Burnett said: “The use of secure care for otherwise healthy individuals is a national scandal.

“Each of these tragic deaths represents a person, a family and a question left behind.”