About 1,300 suicides by psychiatric patients over the last five years could have been prevented by better NHS care, the government's mental health tsar said yesterday.
A confidential inquiry into suicides by people with mental illness found 17% of the deaths since 1996 were preventable. The risk could have been reduced in most other cases by closer supervision, said Louis Appleby, professor of psychiatry at Manchester university.
About six homicides by psychiatric patients could be prevented each year, but most perpetrators did not have the kind of illnesses that were easily treated, he said.
The report added weight to criticism from mental health campaigners that "care in the community" services do not offer the mentally ill the help they need outside hospital.
Prof Appleby said: "These findings emphasise the challenge facing mental health services. Around 40% of patient suicides happen during or soon after in-patient care and we should make the prevention of these deaths a priority."
His recommendations included reforming in-patient wards to make it less easy for people to hang themselves - the most common method of suicide by psychiatric patients.
The report also called for a follow-up assessment for all high risk patients within a week of being discharged from hospital and limiting their supplies of medication to reduce the risk of an overdose.
The study found 15% of suicides were in-patients and 23% committed suicide within three months of hospital discharge. The highest risk was in the first two weeks of leaving hospital.
John Hutton, the health minister, said the report would be used by officials preparing a national suicide prevention strategy. "We are making mental health services safer - for patients, those who work in mental health services, patients' families and the public," he said.
Hospitals were being asked to remove non-collapsible bed frames and shower rails in psychiatric wards within 12 months to reduce the suicide risk. Care orders in the community would ensure people continued to comply with treat- ment and cut reduce suicides by 32% a year.
Cliff Prior, chief executive of the National Schizophrenia Fellowship, said: "Deaths in railway crashes are rightly recognised as preventable, but too often suicides involving people with mental illness are seen as inevitable."
