Health and social care regulators have given evidence to an inquiry looking into the deaths of thousands of mental health inpatients in Essex about the action they have taken against nurses and providers.
The Lampard Inquiry, chaired by Baroness Kate Lampard, is investigating at least 2,000 mental health inpatient deaths between January 2000 and the end of 2023.
The second set of hearings, which is focusing on evidence from healthcare professionals, providers and regulators, began this week.
Yesterday (29 April), Nicholas Griffin KC, counsel to the inquiry, summarised evidence from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), General Medical Council (GMC), Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
Further evidence from these organisations, Mr Griffin said, will be submitted later on in the inquiry process.
The NMC, GMC and HCPC gave the inquiry details – as far as they were able – about fitness to practise (FtP) cases against professionals on their registers in Essex in the relevant period, relating to inpatient mental health.
The nursing regulator, which was able to give data for 2008 onwards, recorded 149 referrals relating to 133 nurses.
Mr Griffin said 65 cases out of 146 that have been assessed were closed at initial screening.
Of the remaining 81, a total of 36 were referred for a hearing and 29 of them have concluded, with a nurse’s fitness to pracitse found to be impaired in 24 cases.
The hearings, Mr Griffin told the inquiry, have led to four cautions, four orders for conditions of practice, 13 suspensions and six professionals being struck off from the NMC register.
Mr Griffin then told the inquiry that the GMC and HCPC also recorded complaints against relevant professionals in Essex on their register.
The GMC did not record any FtP complaint leading to action being taken against a registered doctor; the HCPC recorded one instance where a professional voluntarily left the register following a complaint.
As well as the healthcare professional regulators, the CQC gave evidence to the inquiry regarding inspections it had conducted into Essex-based inpatient mental health providers.
Mr Griffin said it was “not possible to summarise” all of the inspections and evidence the CQC supplied, but told the hearing about recent inspections into inpatient wards in Essex.
In one April 2023 report, in which the service was rated as ‘inadequate’, the CQC noted that the ward “didn’t have enough permanent nursing staff to keep patients safe from avoidable harm”, Mr Griffin said.
As well as this, there were instances where staff were asleep while they were meant to be undertaking observations.
Later in the same day of hearings, the inquiry heard evidence from Jane Lassey, director of regulation at the Health and Safety Executive, which had previously successfully prosecuted Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust over a failure to keep mental health inpatients safe.
More on the Lampard Inquiry
