Why has this report not been published?

Exclusive by David Milne
The Big Issue (Scotland)
2000

Leaked documents in the possession of The Big Issue in Scotland reveal damning evidence of the misuse of electric shock therapy in Scottish mental hospitals.

And The Big Issue has discovered that an explosive report on the controversial electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been repeatedly suppressed by the Scottish Office.

But now a Scottish ECT campaigner and the doctor who led the report team have vowed to go public with its contents if it is not published immediately after the general election.

The report, compiled by the Clinical Research and Audit Group (CRAG), reveals that:

• few ECT clinics have the correct medical equipment to effectively administer shock therapy, with over 20 per cent using obsolete and dangerous machines.

• more than a fifth of clinics were judged of an 'unacceptably low standard'

• almost 75 per cent of clinics kept no proper details of the number and nature of the shock treatments administered.

• and a staggering 84 per cent of hospital consultants did not set aside time for administering or supervising the treatment, often leaving unqualified junior doctors to administer it in breach of official guidelines.

The report, which also sets tough new guidelines on the use of shock therapy, was commissioned in 1993 and completed in 1995. Internal Scottish Office documents reveal the Government has stalled on publishing the report on at least three occasions.

One leaked Government letter even claimed it was "essential" the report was published before February this year - in time for a national audit of shock therapy.

But now campaigners fear the report may never be released as the Scottish Office has once again blocked its publication until after the general election.

Alex Doherty, whose brother committed suicide after treatment, has pledged to publish the leaked copy of the report himself if the incoming government fails to release it immediately after the election.

"This is the most important document produced on shock therapy in Scotland. It's dynamite" he said.

Dr. Chris Freeman, who led the CRAG report team, said: "This report is the shock therapy Bible, but the powers that be have suppressed it".

Freeman said he is dismayed by the delays and believes the next government will shun his findings. But he has promised to distribute the report himself if it is not published soon.

"This report is so important that I'll make sure every hospital consultant in the country has a copy of it", he said.

A Scottish Office spokesman said parliamentary rules prohibited the publication of reports during an election campaign.

But the Scottish Office has yet to explain why the report has not been published prior to the start of the election race.

Doherty said: "These rules didn't stop the Scottish Office publishing their report on E-coli last week".

The failure of the Scottish Office to publish the CRAG report comes in the wake of tough new shock therapy guidelines issued by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

In a strongly worded letter leaked to the Big Issue in Scotland, the psychiatrists' body threatened to remove the right of hospitals to train doctors if they flout the new guidelines.

Dr. Robert Kendell, Royal College president and former Scottish Chief Medical Officer, said: "We are adamant that these new guidelines will be effective and we're bringing out the big guns now to ensure that is the case".

But Doherty said the moves were "too little, too late".

"The time for guidelines is over. The Royal College have had every opportunity to put their house in order and have consistently failed. The use of shock therapy and the conduct of psychiatrists needs to be covered by legislation."

Shock therapy, used to treat severe depression, passes an electric current through a patient's brain inducing an artificial epileptic fit.