PATIENTS are experiencing “inhumane” conditions due to legal ambiguities surrounding care for patients in crisis, an investigation by a government-sponsored body found today.

The Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) said that hospital staff have no power to stop A&E patients in mental health crisis from leaving while waiting for care.

The health department-sponsored body found this was leading doctors to engage in the “least harmful way to break the law” in order to keep them in the hospital.

Inspectors from the health safety watchdog gave examples of patients being locked in a single room with only a toilet, including for more than four days in one observed case.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine added that gaps in the law means patients can face “prolonged stays in emergency departments – often lasting many days and in rare cases weeks.”

HSSIB asked the government to act and stop health workers from operating in a “legal grey area.”