Wednesday 28 September 2022 05:41 PM Damning investigation uncovers 'toxic culture' at mental health hospital trends now
Staff working at one of Britain's biggest mental health hospitals pinched, taunted and even slapped patients, a damning investigation has revealed.
A 'toxic culture' at Edenfield Centre in Prestwich, Bury, has seen nurses humiliate vulnerable people suffering with schizophrenia, autism and other conditions.
An undercover reporter for BBC Panorama, who spent three months working there, witnessed staff swearing at patients, inappropriately restraining and even behaving sexually towards them.
Patients at the hospital are held under the Mental Health Act and are deemed at serious risk of harming themselves or others. Some of them have committed crimes, including murder.
Whistle-blowers had claimed staff were behaving poorly and infringing the safety of people living at the institution, which prompted the secret probe.
Police have now opened an investigation into the hospital, which has a capacity for 150 patients, after being shown the harrowing footage. Officers looking through the evidence said anyone caught committing a crime will be prosecuted.
The investigation, set to air tonight, showed nurses swearing at patients, calling one who was suicidal a 'fat c***' and joking about her slitting her own throat.
Patients were kept in tiny seclusion rooms designed for short-term isolation, some of which smelled of sewage and were mouldy, for months at a time.
Experts said the staff behaviour was dangerous and 'really concerning', adding they acted 'like a gang, not a group of health care professionals'.
A 'toxic culture' at Edenfield Centre near Manchester (pictured) has seen nurses humiliate vulnerable people suffering with mental illnesses
Professor John Baker, chair of mental health nursing at the University of Leeds, said the staff behaviour was dangerous and 'really concerning'
Professor John Baker, chair of mental health nursing at the University of Leeds, said: 'It doesn't feel safe.
'I think you are quite clearly seeing toxic staff and there has been an awful lot of hostility
