Student suicide could rise with unit closure
The Barnes Unit is likely to close due to a £5.5 million deficit
Suicide rates among students are likely to increase when a highly specialised Oxford psychiatric ward closes, according to OUSU Health and Welfare co-chair Gina Hadley. The Barnes Unit of the John Radcliffe Hospital is likely to close in an attempt to reduce a budget deficit of £5.5 million in the Oxfordshire Mental Health Trust. The unit treats over 1000 patients each year, including around 50 students with severe psychological distress.
Hadley told The Oxford Student the closure will seriously compromise student welfare. “The Barnes Unit currently specialises in an extensive range of psychiatric issues including the more minor mental illnesses. ”The closure will affect the academic advance of Oxford’s medics as well as jeopardising the welfare of students. Crucially there could be an increase in student suicide,” said Hadley.
The unit assesses patients who deliberately take overdoses or injure themselves due to psychological distress. It has been running since the 1970s and has considerable experience and expertise in patients suffering from severe mental illness. The Barnes Unit works closely with the University Counselling Service and offers specialised outpatient support for patients with acute mental distress.
Its staff are trained in dealing with both overt self-harm and suicidal patients and those suffering from sleep deprivation and stress. A spokesperson for The Oxfordshire Mental Health Trust said, “The unit will not definitely be closed, the issue is still under debate.” The spokesperson also denied that closure would jeopardise patient welfare, saying patients will instead be admitted to the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment Team in A&E.
However, OUSU VP (Welfare), Aidan Randle-Conde, said this provision would not be sufficient. “One student is admitted to the unit every week. These students would have to go to A&E who are not experienced to deal with the many mental illnesses that the unit deals with. Student welfare will be endangered.” Staff at The Barnes Unit are fighting to prevent the closure.
A spokesperson said, “We are pamphleting, thinking of ways to save money and working closely with MP Patricia Hewitt to continue the work of the Unit.” Gina Hadley claimed that while the closure of the unit is intended to combat the Oxfordshire Mental Health Trust’s budget deficit, the increased hospital admissions would exacerbate the financial problem. Only 7.7% of Barnes Unit referrals are admitted to inpatient beds while the national average is 11.4% in other general hospitals.
Losing the Barnes Unit will also have knock-on effects for medic students and trainee psychiatrists who currently use the unique range of psychiatry to further their work experience and academic excellence. Hadley said, “At the moment the consultants at the Barnes Unit provide lectures and presentations for students and trainee medics, if the unit closes these doctors will leave Oxford.
Sally McLaren, a first-year medic considering psychiatry as a potential career was disappointed by the closure. “The unit provides students with interesting lectures, it would be shame to lose them,” she said. A petition to prevent the closure has been placed online. It tells potential signatories: “The service will be gone forever. It is also important to remember that many students suffer from mental illness; one day it could be you or your friends.It is vital students receive the best medical care possible.”
27th Apr 2006