‘Neglected’ mental health patient’s hunger strike

A MAN with mental health difficulties, whose case made headlines after a judge said his needs had been “neglected” has gone on hunger strike, lawyers have told a judge.

Mr Justice Hayden censured the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which serves north Wales and has responsibilities for the man’s care, last year, and said “so much” had gone wrong.

In February, a lawyer representing the board had told Mr Justice Hayden that plans were in place to move the man, who has been in a hospital setting for more than two years and spent 18 months on a surgical ward, to specialist accommodation.

But lawyers have now told the judge that the man had stopped eating, saying he wanted to die, and remained in hospital.

Mr Justice Hayden is considering the man’s case at hearings in the

Court of Protection, where issues relating to people who lack the mental capacity to make decisions are analysed. He was given updates at the latest hearing in London.

The judge has ruled that the man, who is in his forties, cannot be identified in media reports of the case.

He has heard the man had previously refused to accept food for about 10 days.

The judge, who is based in the

Family Division of the High Court in London, said in October that the man’s needs had been “substantially unaddressed, unacknowledged, unidentified and neglected”.

He said the board had breached court orders, spoke of “substantial and alarming failures”, and called for a “new beginning”.

The board’s chief executive, Jo Whitehead, had apologised and said improvements had been made.