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WQ.136/2019
APPROVED
WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY K.G. PAMPLIN OF ST. SAVIOUR
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 12th MARCH 2019
Question
Can the Minister provide the number of self-harm and suicide attempts (a) which occurred at the General Hospital or another medical facility, such as Orchard House, and (b) which were recorded on admission to the Hospital or another facility, in each year since 2011, broken down, if possible, by age, gender, and whether it was a repeat incident?
Answer
- Incidents of self-harm (SH) and attempted suicide are recorded in the Datix incident reporting system. Incidents reported on Datix: 2011-2018
Deliberate Self-Harm
Location | SH Total |
| Mal | e |
| Femal | e |
|
JGH | 14 |
| 0 |
|
| 9 |
| The 14 episodes of SH were carried out by 9 patients |
Clinique Pinel | 6 |
| 1 |
|
| 4 |
|
|
Orchard House | 73 |
| 12 |
|
| 21 |
| The 73 episodes of SH were carried out by 33 patients. 1 patient had 18 episodes of SH * |
Total | 93 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Self-Harm by Year
Year | Number |
2011 | 5 |
2012 | 9 |
2013 | 9 |
2014 | 6 |
2015 | 16 |
2016 | 9 |
2017 | 5 |
2018 | 34 * |
Total | 93 |
* 1 patient had 18 episodes of deliberate self-harm
Level of harm to patients who self-harmed
Harm to patient | Number |
No Harm | 14 |
Low Harm | 76 |
Moderate Harm | 3 |
Severe Harm | 0 |
Death | 0 |
Total | 93 |
Attempted Self-Harm
There were 12 patients captured on Datix who attempted to self-harm but did not do so as staff were present.
Attempted Suicide
Location | Attempted Suicide | Male | Female |
|
JGH | 10 |
|
| This involved 10 attempts by 8 patients |
Clinique Pinel | 10 | 2 | 5 | This involved 10 attempts by 7 patients |
Orchard House | 20 | 5 | 11 | This involved 20 attempts by 16 patients |
Total | 40 |
|
|
|
Level of Harm that came to Patients that Attempted Suicide
Harm to patient | Number |
No Harm | 11 |
Low Harm | 22 |
Moderate Harm | 4 |
Severe Harm | 1 |
Death | 2 |
Total | 40 |
Attempted suicide by year
Year | Number |
2011 | 8 |
2012 | 3 |
2013 | 3 |
2014 | 5 |
2015 | 4 |
2016 | 6 |
2017 | 1 |
2018 | 10 |
Total | 40 |
In the majority of cases of attempted suicide, no harm or very low harm came to the patient as staff were present and the patient was under observation at the time of the incident. The patients in the category of very low harm are categorised as such as they required additional observation; they did not come to any physical harm.
It is very difficult to say whether the apparent self-harm episode was an attempt at suicide or not. The incident is reported at the point of it occurring and it is subjective at this point as to whether it was an actual intended suicide attempt.
- The first full year of available data is from 2012. The table below shows attendances at the Emergency Department under the Attempted Suicide' and Deliberate Self-Harm' diagnosis categories from 2012 to 2018.
Year | Attempted Suicide | DSH |
2012 | 42 | 98 |
2013 | 33 | 154 |
2014 | 30 | 110 |
2015 | 36 | 89 |
2016 | 27 | 132 |
2017 | 34 | 99 |
2018 | 39 | 110 |
The following table gives a breakdown of the above by gender:
Diagnosis Category | Female | Male | Not Specified |
Attempted Suicide | 134 | 107 | 0 |
Deliberate Self-Harm | 439 | 350 | 3 |
The table below shows a breakdown by age:
Diagnosis Category | <18 years | 18-64 years | 65 years and over |
Attempted Suicide | 28 | 201 | 12 |
Deliberate Self-Harm | 179 | 601 | 12 |
Of the 241 attempted suicides attendances in the period, 27 patients (11%) have attended more than once. Of the 792 deliberate self-harm attendances, 99 patients (12.5%) have attended more than once.