'A true scandal’: Birmingham’s mental health patients are being failed
A 20-year-old girl from Balsall Heath died ‘by misadventure’ in a Manchester psychiatric unit. Her parents say she shouldn’t have been there at all
Dear Patchers — welcome to your Monday briefing.
What a glorious weekend of sunshine! To continue the good mood, our weekly bumper issue is filled to the brim with things to do, interesting reads, a gorgeous doer-upper of a home, and plenty more.
Plus, of course, our Big Story: You might remember our members-only article from two months ago about deaths at Priory Group Hospitals and the Birmingham NHS patients affected. That piece mentioned Amina Ismail, a 20-year-old woman from Balsall Heath who is the latest patient to die at the Priory Hospital Cheadle Royal in Manchester. The inquest into her death ended last week — we’ve got the full story.
Our weekend read asked: Does the West Midlands have daddy issues? No, we weren’t getting all psychoanalytical on you. Instead, we were casting a close eye on an elusive property industry figure who has made a lot of money under the unusual moniker the HMO Daddy — real name Jim Haliburton. This is the latest in our series on supported accommodation and one reader called it: “Great & important investigative journalism!” Read it now, if you haven’t already:
On the subject of investigations, you might know that it has been a very eventful few days for our sister paper in Manchester, The Mill. After publishing this article on Greater Manchester’s Night Time Economy Adviser Sacha Lord (a close advisor to Andy Burnham), our parent company has been threatened with legal action. This kind of thing happens a lot in the media. When high profile and powerful figures face scrutiny, they don’t tend to like it (funny, that).
In this case, our colleagues at The Mill have published evidence that a security company owned by Lord misrepresented itself in an application for £400,000 of public money during the Covid pandemic. Despite this, none of the relevant public bodies seem willing to investigate the claims further, so The Mill is going to do it by itself. Our editor, Joshi, has put out a call for a ‘community fact check’. We have a lot of knowledgeable readers across our titles who can help us work through Lord’s application with a fine toothed comb. Check out this detailed post on The Mill for more info.
But back to Birmingham. What this experience proves, more than ever, is that local journalism is a hell of an important thing. It’s crucial we are able to keep holding people in power to account — they represent us, make decisions on our behalf and, sometimes, are given a lot of our money! For us to continue digging into people like Lord and the HMO Daddy, we need a healthy, paying readership. If you can afford it, please join the 695 Dispatch members (and help us soar past the 700 milestone).
Weather
☔Tuesday: The weekend’s good fare is thoroughly behind us. Light rain, showers and a breeze. Max 18°C.
☔Wednesday: Summer feels far away. Light rain and a stiff breeze all day. Max 17°C.
🌧️Thursday: Rain ratchets up to heavy rain as we head towards the weekend. Max 15°C.
🌦️Friday: Still rainy all day but with some brief patches of respite. Maybe some sun. Max 17°C.
🌦️Weekend: Quintessential spring. Sunny spells, largely showery, breeze. Max 19°C.
We get our weather from the Met Office.
Big story: ‘A true scandal’: Birmingham’s mental health patients are being failed
Top line: An inquiry into the death of 20-year-old Amina Ismail, from Balsall Heath, has found she died by misadventure, contributed to by a prolonged, 13-month stay on a psychiatric intensive care unit in Manchester. Ismail was the fourth person to die in the same hospital last year. Her parents want answers.
‘From pillar to post’: Ismail, who had been abused by her neighbour as a child, was admitted to the Priory Hospital Cheadle Royal in August 2022. She had been diagnosed with several conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Although Ismail was a patient at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital Trust (BWC), she was detained on at least seven different mental health wards between 2019 and 2023, all of which were out-of-area (away from home, with no access to home visits) placements. Her father, Ahmed, said:
“It’s a reflection of our mental health system that Amina was in and out of placements and moved from pillar to post for years, while we feel, never really getting the help and support she needed.”
Context: Ismail was the fourth young woman to die at Priory Cheadle Royal last year after Beth Matthews, 26, Lauren Bridges, 20, and 30-year-old Deseree Fitzpatrick. The series of incidents has led to renewed calls for the NHS to stop outsourcing to the Priory Group’s private mental health hospitals, with the INQUEST charity calling out its “shocking record of failure and neglect”.
Special measures: Following these three deaths, the government’s healthcare watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), gave the Cheadle Royal an inadequate rating. But Priory CEO Rebekah Cresswell refused to accept the findings, saying she “disputed the factual accuracy of many aspects of the report”.
During the inquest into Ismail’s death, the jury heard how an assessment in early 2023 found she could have benefitted from being in a specialist rehabilitation unit for complex personality disorders, rather than being in the psychiatric intensive care unit. She was held in the unit for more than a year, despite the fact patients are usually moved to acute beds or inpatient care within a few weeks or months.
A toxic relationship? The relationship between BWC and the Priory has been called into question by the father of another patient, Matthew Caseby, who died after escaping from the Priory Woodbourne Hospital in Birmingham in 2022. He criticised Cresswell’s response to the CQC’s rating. Speaking to The Dispatch he says: “It tells you everything you need to know about the Priory’s arrogance and fatal complacency.”
Data check: The number of reported deaths at Priory sites rose by about 50 per cent between 2017 and 2020, according to the CQC. Caseby continues:
"Yet the Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Trust still sends its most vulnerable patients out-of-area, far away from their families, to Priory hospitals which it knows are inadequate and unsafe. That is a true scandal.”
Preventative measures: Assistant Coroner for South Manchester, Andrew Bridgman, will issue a Prevention of Future Deaths Report calling on the government and NHS England to set out what measures it will take to improve the availability of appropriate mental health placements.
Bottom line: Amina Ismail had complex mental health needs and her death was the tragic result of various factors. What is clear, however, is that mental health provision is failing patients across the country, and the Priory Group, which has lucrative contracts with the NHS, needs more scrutiny than ever.
Photo of the week
This delightful photo of Bartley Meadows, captured by Esther Barnes, should perhaps be put straight into a museum as proof that summer-like weather did indeed (fleetingly) visit Birmingham at some point in 2024. The child at the centre of the piece is a lovely reminder of how light and free the sunshine can make us all. Indeed, one of your regular Dispatch writers fell asleep in the sun this weekend after eating an ice lolly. Proper childlike behaviour.
Brum in brief
🏚️ Retrofit Brum: New Mayor Richard Parker says he aims to stick to the Combined Authority’s plans to retrofit old draughty homes with improvements like new windows, doors and insulation in order to help people with energy bills and tackle climate change. “This is part of helping people — on energy security, reducing bills, and the cost of living crisis," he said. His comments, made during the campaign, were eagerly received by the organisers of Retrofit Action Week last week, which saw Brummies talk about the ways in which the city might reach energy sustainability.
🏗️ Digbeth mega-development greenlit: Birmingham City Council planning committee has greenlit a 1,300-home development in Digbeth. The buildings will require landscaping of the River Rea which runs through the area. Curiously, on giving the development the go-ahead the planning overseers said it would give the “declining district” a chance at transformational change. Quite where the planning overlords have gotten that impression is anyone’s bet, Digbeth is anything but declining. Other ongoing developments in Digbeth include the new BBC Birmingham offices and Loc film studios. More here.
🚆 Will Virgin trains return? Virgin Trains has applied for a licence to run routes on the West Coast line, five years after losing out to beleaguered successor Avanti. The company has applied for an Open Access Licence which means it would receive no subsidy and could run trains alongside Avanti. Virgin lost the franchise in 2019 after a set-to over pension rules. Yet its successor has been slammed over its service offerings. The Guardian reported that Avanti had become a byword for failure in 2022 (“People had to urinate in Pringles pots” was their very evocative headline). More on the Virgin bid, here.
Home of the week
We love a creative project at The Dispatch and while this £400,000 four bedroom home in Erdington needs a lick of paint and a bit of TLC, it has beautiful features like Victorian tiles and huge bay windows. Plus, a large garden with a greenhouse and vegetable patch — what’s not to love?
Media picks
📰The Guardian has profiled one of the best known politicians in the region, 30-year-old Zarah Sultana, the member of parliament for Coventry South. The coverage follows an appearance on the BBC two Sundays ago, alongside foreign secretary David Cameron who “clearly had no idea” who she was, writes Patrick Wintour. The reason for all the media attention? Wintour reckons it’s because “Sultana has become a relentless and articulate thorn in the side of the government, and sometimes her own party” over Gaza. Read it here.
🎞️This 1959 interview, which is believed to have been filmed in Birmingham City Centre, is a fascinating if poignant little portrait of a busking accordion player and singer. The blind musician, Mr Cooper, discusses his 14-year-long career entertaining passers by so he can make money to pay his cleaner. But it’s also a snapshot of loneliness: “I also play because I’m living in a one-room flat on my own, and this is the best way of coming in contact with people.”
Things to do
Tuesday
💌 For those fed up with app-based dating, over 40s among our readership can head down to The Lost & Found just off New Street to try their luck at IRL speed dating. Comments from previous attendees suggest a great event. More info.
🌍 If you want to learn more about African artefacts from activists and artists (something of a tongue twister), you can head down to The Exchange on Broad St on Tuesday evening. Run by Uni of Birmingham, more here.
Wednesday
😔 Fans of Scottish Indie can get a dose of cult heroes Arab Strap at the Castle and Falcon. Well known for capturing the complexity of human emotions, prepare to weep afterwards and/or feel desolate (not emotions elicited by the Dispatch Monday briefing we hope). Tickets at a click.
🥡 Good at general knowledge and enjoy your street food? Then head down to Herbert’s Yard in Longbridge for the Universally Challenged quiz, hosted by comedian Alex Hylton. Kicks off at 7.30PM.
Thursday
🎭 Withnail & I is in its final week at The Rep, with one Dispatch writer heading back for their second theatrical dose of onstage drunkenness, morosity and layabout foppishness. Read our review from last week and purchase your tickets here.
🥽 On Thursdays and Saturdays you can head down to Stryx exhibition space and experience the world of virtual reality and 3D art — all for free. More details here.
Correction: An earlier version of this issue, sent out by email, suggested that Richard Parker made his comments about retrofitting during Retrofit Action Week. He actually made them during his campaign to become mayor. The copy has been corrected to reflect this.
Sorry members, I forgot to link to the film about the blind musician. I've updated the website to include this but for everyone with access to the comments, you can also find it here:
https://www.macearchive.org/films/midland-montage-01071959-blind-musician
digbeth mega development... given go ahead... yet acocrding to EA it is being built in an area possibly prone to flooding... meanwhle upstream in bourneville parks are being ear maked to be turned into dams and ponds to stop flooding in digbeth. bournvillians are furious and fighting back aginst the EA.... So who has got it sums and consultations wrong EA?? planners?? Both? certianly something isnt right here...yet again!!!