MENTAL health bosses have apologised for failures in finding a hospital bed for a patient who instead spent three days locked in a police cell.

Concerned police bosses referred the matter to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which ruled officers had made the right decision to keep him behind bars for his own and the public's protection.

But the IPCC also heaped severe criticism on Manchester mental health and social care trust, which apologised and said procedures had been improved.

Knife

In March, the M.E.N. reported how a man suffering from mental health problems had to be kept in the cell at Didsbury's Elizabeth Slinger Road police station because no appropriate hospital bed could be found.

The 34-year-old man, from Wales, had been arrested in Manchester on March 7 for possessing a knife.

That day paperwork for him to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act was competed and the next day he was given bail. But officers kept him in his cell for a further two days illegally because no bed could be found.

He was under 24-hour suicide watch.

It was not until Thursday afternoon that the Manchester mental health care trust was able to find a suitable psychiatric intensive care bed for the man.

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