The Psychiatric Hospital of Attica last Wednesday recorded a brutal murder by a chronic inpatient against a mentally ill patient who had been admitted as an emergency on the immediately preceding call. The incident raised major issues about the way patients are cared for within psychiatric units and the general safety of staff and patients.

On that day, a total of 255 patients were hospitalized at the former Attica Psychiatric Hospital, now the Attica Multipurpose Mental Health Nursing Unit of the 2nd Municipal Department of Mental Health, as renamed on February 1 as part of the new National Network of Mental Health Services.

31 of them, including the perpetrator, had the unaccountability stipulated in Article 69 of the Criminal Code (CC) because of a serious mental disorder. The vast majority of these inpatients have committed murder and/or other crimes, but were found to lack accountability by the court, as the culprit of their actions is their illness and not themselves.

However, only one was being treated in the special room for these patients, as defined in the therapeutic framework of compulsory hospitalizationin a hospital rather than in prison. The room is located in the so-called Prefab Building that houses the 7th Psychiatric Ward – where in 2015 a dangerous patient, a 30-year-old man who had committed murder and who eventually caused the deaths of three other patients during his hospitalization by setting fire to them, was first housed.

This is also the only space available at Attica’s large psychiatric hospital for the custody of the mentally ill under Article 69PK. The other 30 patients with unregistered are distributed in the 10 total psychiatric departments, from one to eight per department. There are a further 16 mental patients under Article 69PC who are accommodated in hostels and boarding houses supervised by this hospital in the Basin. The 47-year-old inpatient who killed the 44-year-old woman has been kept in the special area of the Precat Building since last Thursday.

He will remain there until tomorrow when he is due in court to enter a plea. The coroner has requested a psychiatric expert opinion. The extremely dangerous patient who was in the special room was transferred to another room in the 3rd Psychiatric Department. The 47-year-old had not shown any aggressive behaviour during his hospitalisation in Athens since last November, according to hospital sources. It is recalled, however, that he had committed another murder during his hospitalization at the Corfu Psychiatric Hospital.