Mental health units 'heading for Mid Staffs scandal'

Britain's senior psychiatrist has warned that the mental health sector is heading towards its own Mid Staffs scandal, according to the Observer.

Professor Sue Bailey, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said she was concerned that mental services were approaching a "tipping point" with funding being cut despite a record 50,000 uses of the Mental Health Act to detain patients in hospital for assessment or treatment in 2012-13.

She said: "I do feel very strongly that if we keep always being the last in the line there will come a tipping point and we will end up with our own [scandal and subsequent inquiry].

"We are under increasing pressure. Carers will tell you that. Mental health practitioners who feel it is safe to talk about these things will tell you that – but whistleblowing is still not easy."