Health Secretary Alex Neil chats with NHS Tayside Service Manager for Secure Care Barbara Wilson.
Further calls for a Government review of security at Murray Royal Hospital, Perth, have been dismissed just hours after it was revealed that two patients kicked down doors in an escape bid.
On Thursday, Health Secretary Alex Neil opened a secure unit at the hospital but, when questioned about security breaches, he said allowing some patients outside access was “a risk worth taking”.
There was no reason for a probe, despite at least four patients sparking alerts recently.
Two of the men went on the run and were found waiting to board a bus. Both have been transferred to the State Hospital at Carstairs, South Lanarkshire.
Mr Neil said the case had been looked at on its own merits and thus there was no need to review security across the whole site.
He said: “If you look at the bigger picture, there are very few, in percentage terms, patients who break the rules in that sense, so there is no case for a wider review but there is always an automatic review of each individual patient’s case any time they break the rules.”
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