THE lives of mental health patients in Hampshire are being put at risk by staff who pin them face down on the floor, a leading charity has warned.

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust has been criticised for using the controversial technique two or three times a day – beaten only by one other trust in the country.

Latest figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Mind revealed that the trust used the restraint technique 810 times in 2011-12, just behind Northumberland, Tyne and Wear trust, who used it 923 times.

Between them, the two institutions account for almost half of all the face-down restraint revealed in the figures.

This frequent use has been described as “shocking” and apparently “excessive” by health minister Norman Lamb, who said he would be “very interested” in considering a ban on the restraint, something that some trusts have already done and that Mind is calling for.

He also ordered a “specific investigation” into the use of face-down restraint in Southampton and Northumberland, adding: “I want answers from them about their use of restraint and I want them to address what appears to be a very considerable excessive use of restraint.”

A number of the 54 mental health trusts approached were not able to provide figures despite a statutory requirement to keep a record.

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust said its staff were trained to assess each situation to ensure the “safest possible” use of physical restraint is applied, only when it becomes “absolutely necessary” and as a “last resort”.

Lesley Stevens, clinical director of mental health services at the trust, said: “We welcome Mind’s report into the use of restraint in mental health services, and hope that it will contribute towards more robust national guidance in the future.

“We fully recognise that, whatever methods are used, there is no completely safe restraint position or duration.

“When interpreting the information in the Mind report, it is important to take into account the relative size of the different organisations involved, the number of patients involved, and the type of services that are provided, as there is a large variation from trust to trust.

“Southern Health is one of the largest providers of mental health and learning disability services in England.

“We also support people who have been involved in the criminal justice system and other highly complex and challenging people who require very intensive care.”

The mental health charity Mind is calling upon government to “introduce an end to face-down physical restraint in all healthcare settings urgently”.

Chief executive Paul Farmer added: “Physical restraint can be humiliating, dangerous and even life-threatening. Our research shows some trust have a shameful overreliance on physical restraint.

“Face-down restraint, when a person is pinned face-down on the floor, is particularly dangerous, as well as extremely frightening to the person being restrained. It has no place in modern healthcare and its use must be ended.”