The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) review of North Birmingham Mental Health Trust: What can we hope for from the CHI?

Abstract

If you are working in mental health, you get used to being inspected and commented upon – the Mental Health Act Commission, Audit Commission, Social Services Inspectorate, Health Advisory Service (HAS, as was) and public inquiries into patient homicides. Working in multidisciplinary teams has made us used to operating with a variety of perspectives and for most of us this is a necessary and welcome part of the job. Few psychiatrists, however, are so sanguine about the former HAS or about homicide inquiries. The repeated complaint has been their inconsistency. Their quality and tone (potentially as damaging as their findings) have varied to quite an indefensible degree.