Suffolk and Norfolk police asked to investigate NSFT deaths

The Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk have written to the counties' chief constables requesting they open investigations into 8,440 deaths of patients of the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) since 2020.

Campaigners want police to review cases where coroners have issued Prevention of Future Deaths notices and where other patients have died in similar circumstances.

Police have also been asked to assess whether the threshold has been reached for charges of corporate manslaughter against the senior managers and the trust board. 

An NSFT spokesperson said the trust is working to make sure that all recommendations and actions from PFD reports are implemented, and added that Caroline Donovan, the trust's new CEO, is dedicated to making cultural changes. 

Caroline Donovan, the new NSFT CEO (Image: NSFT)

Mark Harrison, chair of the campaign, said: "This is the biggest deaths crisis in the history of the NHS and it is happening in the NHS Foundation Trust charged with providing mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk. 

"The police are being asked to act because all other options to save the lives of people in mental distress have failed.  

"We are being failed by all parts of the system that are meant to be there to protect us."

The campaign has also written to NHS England, the Department for Health and Social Care and the Care Quality Commission, as well as MPs. 

Mr Harrison said: "NSFT has been rated inadequate 4 times in the last 8 years and is still in special measures.  

"The confirmation in the Grant Thornton report that 8,440 patients and service users have died whilst under the care of NSFT since 2020 should have confirmed that NSFT is institutionally dysfunctional and has to be broken up.  

"Instead, there has been a deafening silence from the bodies who have oversight of mental health – NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care.

"That is why we are also demanding an independent statutory public inquiry so that lessons can be learnt and practices changed." 

Campaigners in Ipswich in 2022 (Image: Newsquest)

A spokesperson for NSFT said: "We offer our sincere condolences to all families and carers of people affected.

"We can assure all families and carers that we are working really hard to learn from these incidents and do our very best to ensure they are minimised in future.

"We have responded to all Prevention of Future Deaths reports and working to make sure that recommendations and actions are being implemented.

"We would add that there have been no Prevention of Future Death notices issued during 2023." 

The spokesperson said the trust's new CEO, Caroline Donovan, who joined in November and has background in improving patient care, is determined to create widescale change in the organisation. 

Since arriving, Ms Donovan has appointed an experienced patient safety advisor who was previously a Chief Nurse and Chief Operating Officer from an outstanding rated mental health trust.

The spokesperson said she has also launched a new programme called 'Listening into Action' which will enable staff, partners and service users and carers to work together to take action on areas that they feel need improvement.

"A review of prevention of future deaths is already underway to ensure improvements in practice have been made and learning is embedded across clinical services," they said.

"Key themes have been identified which the Trust is working on, including, but not limited to communication, waiting times, medicines management and record keeping, as areas the Trust must continue to focus on." 

The spokesperson said the trust has made 'considerable progress' in its work with carers across Norfolk and Suffolk and that earlier this year, it moved from a CQC rating of Inadequate to Requires Improvement.

They added that the programme of cultural change could take three to five years to embed but is "something the Trust will remain committed to".