A retired mental health nurse with more than 30 years’ experience has been appointed to advise an inquiry into the deaths of thousands of mental health inpatients in Essex.
Mick O’Driscoll is one of three independent advisers who has this week been appointed to the Lampard Inquiry.
“Each assessor brings unique and valuable expertise that will inform the inquiry’s work and final recommendations”
Kate Lampard
The inquiry, being chaired by Baroness Kate Lampard, is investigating around 2,000 mental health inpatient deaths in NHS and NHS-funded services in Essex between January 2000 and December 2023.
It will focus on care given at Essex Partnership University Foundation NHS Trust and the North East London NHS Foundation Trust, along with other organisations that existed previously.
The inquiry will investigate the circumstances surrounding deaths of patients, including serious failings in care, patient involvement in relation to their care, how engaged families and carers were with processes, and the actions, practices and behaviours of staff.
Meanwhile, it will also examine the actions of leadership at the trusts, the culture and governance of these organisations and the interaction between the trusts and other public bodies.
This week, the Lampard Inquiry announced that it had appointed three independent assessors, who will inform the inquiry on important aspects of its work.
The assessors all have decades of collective experience in frontline clinical care, mental health service delivery and healthcare governance.
Their role will involve offering general advice when they have appropriate knowledge and experience, advising the inquiry’s investigative work and providing advice to the chair on the final report and recommendations.
Among the newly-appointed assessors is Mick O’Driscoll, a former registered mental health nurse with 30 years’ experience of working in both junior and senior clinical roles within NHS acute adult mental health services.
His career spans a variety of mental health nursing job roles, including staff nurse, matron, clinical nurse specialist, associate director of nursing and clinical director.
During his career, Mr O’Driscoll developed and led the training of many nursing, medical and occupational therapy staff in his area of specialist interest – understanding suicidal behaviour and risk.
He was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to mental health nursing in 2014.
Mr O’Driscoll said: “As a retired registered mental health nurse with 30 years’ experience of working in and around acute adult mental health services, and with a particular interest in the understanding and care of suicidal behaviour, I am proud to be part of this essential inquiry.
“Learning from the past and making significant and lasting recommendations will give people who use mental health services and their families, greater confidence in the safety of those services.”
Mr O’Driscoll will join consultant psychiatrists Dr Elizabeth Walker and Dr Nicola Goater, who have also been appointed as assessors.
Baroness Lampard
Baroness Lampard said: “The appointment of these independent assessors is a critical step in ensuring the inquiry meets its terms of reference with the highest standards of clinical and operational rigour.
“Each assessor brings unique and valuable expertise that will inform the inquiry’s work and final recommendations.”
A non-statutory inquiry into mental health inpatient deaths in Essex was first announced in April 2021.
Then, in June 2023, the then secretary of state for health and social care, Steve Barclay, granted the inquiry statutory status, meaning it could now legally compel witnesses to give evidence.
The upgrading of the inquiry came partly in response to difficulties faced by the previous chair to get staff and former staff to volunteer to share their experiences.
So far, the inquiry has already heard commemorative statements from more than 70 families and loved ones.
It has also granted 96 core participant applications and sent more than 130 formal requests for evidence.
More than 5,000 people who may have been affected by the matters under investigation have been contacted by the inquiry to contribute.
The next round of public hearings, which will hear important contextual evidence relating to the provision of mental health inpatient care in Essex, will take place from Monday 28 April until Thursday 15 May.
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