In October 2023, Mind, a mental health charity published previously unseen data laying bare the full scale of the emergency in mental healthcare, with staff reporting 17,340 serious incidents in 12 months. 
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) figures shows mental healthcare staff across England reported an incident two times every hour [1] in the last year, where people are treated for issues including self-harm, eating disorders and psychosis.

Source: National Mind, 10 October 2023

Incidents included:

• injuries to patients that caused likely long term sensory, movement or brain damage, or physically damaged their body
• prolonged physical pain or psychological harm, or shortened life expectancy
• cases of abuse, including those involving the police
• injuries for which the patient needed treatment to prevent them dying

The full list of incidents can be found on the CQC website.

The 17,340 serious incidents were reported in hospital, community and residential mental healthcare settings between the beginning of April last year and the same time this year.

In total:

• 15,254 reported incidents related to care in private community and hospital settings
• 2,086 related to NHS community and residential places of care
• Across all settings, the highest number of reported incidents were in the North West of England (2,666), followed closely by the East Midlands (2,657).[2]

The map above shows how incident reports were spread by region. A full breakdown of the number of incidents by region and type of provider is available.

Many NHS patients receive care in private settings because of pressures on capacity. According to NHS data, approximately 17% of people of all ages who were in contact with secondary mental health services between 2021 and 2022 were seen by a non-NHS provider.[i]

All of these incidents involved care providers raising concerns with the CQC under their statutory duty under Regulation 18.

The previously unpublished data follows a string of abuse scandals in mental health hospitals.

Recent cases include:

• The Priory Hospital Cheadle Royal near Stockport, in the North West, where Beth Matthews, 26, Lauren Bridges, 20, and Deseree Fitzpatrick, 30, all died between January and March last year.
• The North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), where a coroner found that found that a series of failures in care led to the death of 12-year-old Allison Aules last July.
• The Priory Arnold, in the East Midlands, where a patient died last December after managing to leave the hospital, and another incident this January in which a patient was injured after getting on to its roof.
• Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, where undercover journalists filmed staff using restraint inappropriately and swearing at and slapping patients at the Edenfield Centre in Prestwich last year.