Mental hospital exposed by The Independent for treating children ‘like animals’ must not be allowed to reopen

Editorial: It is incumbent upon the Care Quality Commission to make sure such institutions, with their disproportionate population of vulnerable young girls, their very highest priority

These revelations come at a time when children’s mental health is becoming a crucial issue (Google)

It must have been hellish to have been a patient – a child patient indeed – at the Taplow Manor hospital in Maidenhead. The most serious of the many moral, medical and potentially criminal incidents alleged to have taken place there include the death of a patient and the rape of a child. The latter involving the staff, so the claims state.

During The Independent’s investigation it was found that patients felt they were “treated like animals”, over-medicated and injured during restraint. For years the NHS and regulators ignored multiple warnings and complaints. Staffing, both in quality and quantity, was inadequate. It was a shameful situation that persisted for far too long.

Having been forced to close, the institution plainly needs radical change. That, however, is not necessarily what has transpired. In an insult to those whose lives have been blighted or destroyed by negligence and worse, Taplow Manor is being readied for a reopening within mere months. In a letter to staff, Active Care Group, which which runs the hospital, states: “We will be replacing some of our wards with adult acute services and therefore not closing the hospital. This will mean further training for colleagues as we transition to this new service.”