Patients in Kent's mental health hospitals are five times more likely to be physically restrained than the average for England, figures released today reveal.

Of those 1,269 incidents recorded between 2011 and last year in the county, nearly one in 10 was a face-down restraint - where a person is pinned face down on the floor.

This can happen when patients seem aggressive and threatening, or refuse treatment.

Now charity Mind is calling for an end to what it calls "life-threatening" face-down restraint, which it claims is "particularly dangerous."

Statistics released today show the average number of face-down restraints in the country was 65, while the Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust saw 192 in the same period.

On 22 occasions a patient was said to be injured by those holding them down in Kent and Medway.

Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, said: "Physical restraint can be humilitating, dangerous and even life-threatening, and the huge variation in its use indicates that some trusts are using it too quickly.

"Face-down restraint, where 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.

"Our research shows that some trusts have a shameful over-reliance on physical restraint and use face-down physical restraint too readily in their response to managing a crisis situation."

The Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust said in the following statement: "The safety of our patients and our staff is always our first concern and physical restraint is only usedwhen there is an immediate threat to an individual or people around them.

"It is only used after all other interventions, such as de-escalation, have failed.

"Staff are taught to restrain in a standing, seated or kneeling position, restraining someone in the prone position only occurs when it is dictated by the patient’s behaviour.

"Our staff undergo regular training in restraint techniques."