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Minimum and medium security

The interface: use of Section 17 trial leave

Langdon Hospital, Exeter Road, Dawlish, Devon EX7 0NR

Jeanette Smith, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist

Fromeside Clinic, Blackberry Hill, Bristol BS16 1ED

Rini Hoogkamer, Senior House Officer in Forensic Psychiatry, Jeremy Laing, Senior House Officer in Forensic Psychiatry and W. M. Donovan, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist

Langdon Hospital, Exeter Road, Dawlish, Devon EX7 0NR

^* Correspondence

This paper examines the use of Section 17 trial leave from local psychiatric units to regional secure units in order to facilitate the return of patients to local services when higher security is no longer necessary. The current national shortage of medium secure beds is exacerbated by such patients when general psychiatric services are unwilling to have them back. Experience from the regional secure units in the old South Western Region has shown beneficial effects of the use of Section 17 trial leave in this way.