Sniffer Dogs Warning in War on Patient Drug Abuse

By JESSICA SHAUGHNESSY

HEALTH managers have promised a zero tolerance approach on patients who use illegal drugs on wards with urine tests and sniffer dogs.

Mersey Care said tough action will be taken after the Daily Post revealed patients were openly taking and dealing in drugs at Stoddart House on the Fazakerley hospital site.

The Trust says it is also planning to tackle issues of overcrowding and “poor quality” mental health units after staff and patients complained of a lack of resources and unhygienic wards.

A spokesman for Mersey Care said last night: “Striking the balance between helping mentally ill service users cope with their psychiatric problems is a complex and demanding job, which can be made more difficult when service users resort to using illegal substances.

“The Trust is also tackling another of the problems faced by services users and staff on a daily basis, the poor quality of mental health units throughout Liverpool and Sefton.

“As part of the long-term plan to improve and upgrade the care and treatment of mentally ill adults, Mersey Care is putting the final touches to its plans to provide fit-for-purpose buildings at a variety of venues throughout the area.

“If these plans are successful, mentally ill people will be able to access well designed and spacious buildings.”

The Trust’s director of adult mental health and social care, Tony Oakman, said a security review is under way and said that in addition to urine samples being taken when there is cause for concern, there will be unannounced visits by police sniffer dogs. Mr Oakman said security has been enhanced and police liaison groups have been created.

Union leaders have backed Mersey Care’s tough new approach but say patients must not feel like they are prisoners on mental health wards.

Jean Atkinson, chairwoman of Mersey Care’s trade union organisation, said: “At the moment, some of our units are just too overcrowded for the service users tobe able to engage in meaningful activities and this is really frustrating for them and for the staff.”

Stephanie Thomas, a spokesman for Unison which represents some health workers from Stoddart House, said: “Some patients at Stoddart House are free to come and go. You can’t search everybody who comes and goes, including visitors, that would turn it into a prison.”

p A COMPLETE lockdown of a psychiatric hospital in Waterloo was ordered over the weekend after patients were found to have taken cocaine and cannabis.

Patients were not allowed out and visitors were not allowed in to the Capio-Nightingale Unit on Park Road after seven out of its 12 patients tested positive for illegal drugs. An investigation has been launched into how patients managed to get drugs past tight security checks