6(C)(i). Cage beds are part of the admissions procedure

In one hospital, a patient told the monitoring team that she had been in a cage bed for the previous two weeks, since the time of her admission. She said that newly-admitted patients were placed in cage beds, but the cage bed was not always locked. This happens to all new admissions for the first one or two weeks, until a “proper bed” is found, she said. Staff members confirmed that cage beds were used on admission, but for patients who were in a state of “acute restlessness”.

In another hospital the cage bed was located in the “admissions room” with other regular beds; this cage bed was sometimes left unlocked and “used as a regular bed”. In this hospital, newly-admitted patients spent the first two days in the admissions room, and if they calmed down they would be transferred to a regular room. The person in the cage bed was checked every half an hour, the staff reported.

The use of cage beds as an overflow control mechanism in this way becomes inevitable when a hospital operates at or near capacity; so long as the cage beds remain in operation, that is. The cage beds are likely to be the last available beds on any admission wards. According to hospital staff, patients on such wards are only placed in them in response to what staff perceive to be “difficult behaviour”: a label which is undoubtedly given to all newly-admitted patients. Patients who are admitted at times when all normal beds are occupied are therefore likely to be assigned to a cage bed. Even when the front panel of the bed is left open, so that such patients are not actually locked into the cage, it is clear that this constitutes an degrading and intimidating start to any hospital experience.