Human Rights

Cage Beds.

John Bowis supports the campaign of the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (MDAC) to end the use of cage beds in countries of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. Cage beds - fitted with a metal-barred construction above the mattress, or a metal frame covered with netting - are designed to enclose difficult, agitated patients within their confines. The alternative to this inhuman and degrading method of "treatment" is to use modern medical care with non-physical and manual control techniques.

In October 2004, speaking in the European Parliament, John Bowis repeated his call for an end to the use of caged beds and pleaded for rights and dignity to be at the heart of mental health policy. Health Commissioner David Byrne agreed and promised that conditions would be monitored throughout the EU. (Related Press release.)

In December 2003 John Bowis raised the issue of cage beds in the European Parliament as an EU Enlargement human rights issue, following the publication of a report by MDAC highlighting the practice in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia.

In response, Commissioner Günther Verheugen stated, “I think that we are dealing with a phenomenon that gives us some insight into the sometimes terrifying history of psychiatry, and that we should be really shocked by this. I am sure we all agree that such methods have no place in a modern psychiatric service. For this reason the Commission will do all in its power to continue pursuing the matter, and we shall not stop until the last cage bed has disappeared in every single one of these countries.”

On 13 July 2004 the Czech Minister of Health Jozef Kubinyi announced that he had instructed directors of all health institutions in the Czech Republic to immediately cease use of "cage beds", calling for the elimination of "net beds" by end 2004, and advising replacement of these beds with seclusion rooms and increased numbers of staff to improve care for people with mental disabilities.

John Bowis said: “Having taken the issue to the Czech Senate and the Czech EU Commissioner Pavel Telicka, I am pleased that the Minister of Health has now decided to remove cage beds from the psychiatric system. However, it important that cage beds not be replaced by other unacceptable forms of restraint, such as bed straps.”

The Hungarian Health Minister's July 2004 decree banning the use of cage beds within psychiatric and social care facilities in Hungary has also been welcomed. Slovakia has banned the use of cage beds in social care homes but the ban does not extend to psychiatric facilities in hospitals. NGOs are monitoring the situation closely in all four countries.

Last year (2003) British MEPs John Bowis, Liz Lynne and Richard Howitt wrote to Health Ministers of the countries concerned and John Bowis also helped to ensure that the European Parliament's "Annual Report on Human Rights in the World in 2002" included a call for cage beds to cease being used.