ED doctors falling into 'legal gap' when it comes to keeping patients in crisis safe

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By Ella Pickover, PA Media, and Daniel Pye

Doctors working in emergency departments feel forced to choose the “least harmful way to break the law” when trying to keep safe patients in crisis, an investigation has warned.

The Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) said that when a vulnerable mental health patient is being cared for in an ED, there are no powers for staff to prevent them from leaving while they are waiting for assessment or admission.

This legal gap means patients are being placed in “inhumane” conditions during long waits while doctors face an “impossible choice” to try and keep them safe.

Doctors are left in a position where they must decide whether to let a patient go who is obviously going to do harm to themselves or others or unlawfully detain them, the HSSIB said.

One consultant psychiatrist told the investigation that the “dilemma is stark”.

Locked in a room for more than four days