Shaun Lintern Totally agree. I work in mental health and have seen the gradual decline. It is very sad.

Why does any of this matter? For Nigel Abbott and his killer Kierran Fletcher it was everything.

On the day Nigel died, 16 people were waiting for a hospital bed. The coroner said he had reported on 14 similar deaths:

Shocking investigation by Shaun Lintern reveals that 233 people have been killed over 4 years by those with a mental health disorder showing the intersection between crime and health policy thetimes.co.uk/article/e0ff41…

Credit to Claire Murdoch for being interviewed for this investigation. Inevitably we can't include everything, but she makes some thoughtful comments on mental health services, crisis care and local areas providing for their population:

Shaun Lintern The Times and The Sunday Times As a mum/carer we have been in the same situation, we could have written that letter. Thank you for sharing and highlighting. Until Mental Illness knocks on one's own door, people have very little understanding of what happens.

The Care Quality Commission Chris Dzikiti told us the regulator was aware MH services were understaffed & underfunded and it had heard of cases of detention where 14-day time limits on finding a bed were being breached. This creates a risk of harm he said.

Increased beds will help but there needs to be a significant investment in community services with increased staffing in order to prevent crises.

I think that Claire Murdoch is right. If you fund more beds, you're not funding the community services which will prevent certain situations. 'more beds' will always lead to the need for more beds, because psychiatric hospitals are unable to address people's needs holistically.

One mental health nurse told me: “The Mental Health Act is supposed to be a safety net but the public don’t realise it isn’t there any more.  We are not keeping these people safe and we are not keeping the community safe.”

I think we can all agree that better mental healthcare for the nation requires vast commitment and substantial investment in training and a complete overhaul of the entire mental healthcare estate ie we need new buildings that facilitate better care; plus more beds

I manage acute adult inpatient mental health services. The comment from Claire Murdoch - they are 'running red hot' - is spot on.

Demand is consistently, sustainedly high and barriers to discharge (often related to social care) mean some people are in beds they no longer require.

Since 2010, the number of available mental health beds in the NHS has fallen by 5,600.

This is despite multiple warnings from coroners over deaths linked to a lack of beds. Since 2020, there have been at least 233 mental health related homicides.

🚨 INVESTIGATION: Britain's mental health system is broken. Patients & innocent members of the public are paying the price.

Today we reveal how dangerous mentally ill people are being routinely left in the community. Some will kill themselves or others: thetimes.co.uk/article/e0ff41…

One mental health nurse told me: “The Mental Health Act is supposed to be a safety net but the public don’t realise it isn’t there any more.  We are not keeping these people safe and we are not keeping the community safe.”