Southern Health sorry for 'unacceptable saga' over patient deaths

AN NHS trust has apologised to the families of four patients who died in its care for failing to respond and investigate their deaths properly.

The chief executive of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Nick Broughton, said he was “profoundly sorry” for the handling of four cases between 2011 and 2015, laid out in an independent report published last week.

The trust is based at Tatchbury Mount, near Totton, and provides mental health services in Hampshire. It is also responsible for hospitals at Lymington, Hythe and Fordingbridge.

It was recently rated as ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission, up from ‘requires improvement’. In 2018 it was fined £2m for health and safety breaches over the deaths of two patients, including Teresa Colvin (45) from Lyndhurst.

Commissioned by the NHS, the report by Nigel Pascoe QC looked into the response by the trust to the deaths of Robert Small, who died in 2012, David West in 2013, Edward Hartley in 2014, and Marion Munns in 2015.

Mr Pascoe praised changes brought in by the trust but criticised it for failures including insensitivity and delays, poor communication and planning, and lack of supervision and support.

Describing a “truly deplorable and unacceptable saga”, he recommended payments to families of up to £5,000 and a public investigation to look further into specific areas of trust policy.

Dr Broughton, who is leaving Southern Health in May, said: “The trust fully accepts the recommendations of this report and I thank the families involved for sharing their experiences.

“The deaths of the four people included in this report have had an immeasurably devastating impact on their families. This report reinforces our own view: that at times the trust’s response to families’ understandable concerns added to their distress at an already difficult time.”

However, a long-time critic of the trust, Geoff Hill, attacked the trust’s management for failing to tackle the issues earlier.

He said: “[Dr Broughton] showed no recognition that he could have resolved the issues in the last two years without the need for NHS England to commission Mr Pascoe, no doubt at great cost to the taxpayer.”