A female patient has died after an attack by a man being cared for in the same psychiatric unit despite long-standing government pledges to end the use of mixed-sex wards.

A 58-year-old woman was killed in the ward where she was being treated at Birch Hill Hospital in Littleborough, Greater Manchester. A 36-year-old male patient from the same ward was in custody after Greater Manchester Police began a murder inquiry.

The attack happened just after 6pm on Monday. The woman, who has not been named, was transferred to Rochdale Infirmary but died of her injuries. Her death comes a year after The Times revealed that female patients in mental health units were the victims of more than 100 incidents of rape and sexual assault between 2004 and last year. Last November the Government pledged £30 million to improve patient safety on psychiatric wards, particularly for women.

In 1996 Tony Blair pledged as leader of the opposition to end all mixed-sex wards. However, an investigation by the NHS’s chief nursing officer found in May that more than 16 per cent of acute hospital trusts were still struggling to provide single-sex accommodation.

Marjorie Wallace, of SANE, the mental health charity, said: “This tragedy is yet another casualty of the Government’s relentless agenda to cut psychiatric beds and downgrade units.”

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