Article: Health boards face lawsuits over lack of alternatives to Carstairs

THE head of Scotland's Mental Welfare Commission has warned health boards that they face legal action at the Court of Session from 20 mentally ill patients who he says are "entrapped" in Carstairs.

Patients - including those sectioned for rape or murder - were recently given the right to be moved to a medium security unit when their condition improves. But a lack of available accommodation has left patients with nowhere to go.

Dr Donald Lyons, director of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland, said around 20 patients are waiting to be moved from the state hospital in Lanarkshire, including four who have been waiting for two years or more.

He is now expecting patients to go to the ...

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