Nearly 3,500 UK Mental Health Hospital Patients Reported Missing In Past Year – Reports

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik – ) Nearly 3,500 patients of UK mental health hospitals went missing from their facilities between April 2008 to March 2019, local media reported, citing the UK National Health Service (NHS).According to NHS figures, as cited by Sky news media outlet, a total of 3,462 people who had been sectioned under the UK Mental Health Act went “absent without leave,” meaning they left the treatment centers without permission or failed to return after being allowed out on temporary leave.

This was a 4.4 percent increase from the previous year, when 3,316 patients went missing.

The highest number of missing patients was recorded by the Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foungation Trust, where over the year, 625 of such cases were recorded.

In May, the Royal College of Nursing reported that the UK mental health nursing workforce had lost more than 6,000 nurses over the past decade, despite promises by UK leadership to boost resources available for the sector. In January, the NHS announced that it would commit an additional 2.3 billion Pounds ($3 billion) per year toward mental health services to ensure that mental health patients had access to proper care