Norfolk and Suffolk NHS bosses address deaths data scandal

The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust says it now knows with confidence how many of its patients died unexpectedly while under its care in recent years - having previously admitted it had "lost count".

The organisation has used a new record-keeping system to analyse the deaths of 12,503 people known to the trust between April 2019 and November 2023.

But the methodology and findings have been criticised by campaigners calling for an overhaul of the mental health system, who had said the figure could be as high as 2,600 since 2013.

The NSFT's new figures were then broken down to show which patients had received care in the last six months of their lives - and whether their deaths were from natural or unnatural causes.

Following this process, the trust says 418 deaths from 2019 and 2023 were "unexpected and unnatural" - a term it uses when deaths have not been natural - including suicide, homicide or drug toxicity.

The new data has been included in a report which is due to go before the trust's board of directors next week.

Caroline Donovan, NSFT chief executive (Image: NSFT)

Caroline Donovan, NSFT's chief executive, said: "Every death is a death too many and every person who has died has a family whose lives have been devastated from their loss.

"We will learn from and use this evidence to deal with problems and improve care.

"This report rights a wrong. We can't learn from these sad outcomes and experiences, and we can't assess our performance and quality if we do not know what is happening to the people in our care."

Ms Donovan added that the new dataset highlighted "clear themes" in what has been going wrong with the trust's care.

She said four main learnings had been taken from the exercise - which involved the work of 253 of the trust's staff, including 134 clinical workers.

These were:

1. The need for better communication with patients and carers
2. The need to reduce waiting times and barriers to services
3. The need to address inconsistent record-keeping
4. The need for the trust to grow its workforce and better retain staff

The scandal so far

The new report follows a scathing review of the way the trust kept track of patient deaths by auditor Grant Thornton.

Published last year, the report highlighted serious shortcomings in its approach.

Following this, a separate independent report - Forever Gone - was published by campaigners Caroline Aldridge, Emma Corlett and Anne Humphrys.

Forever Gone authors Caroline Aldridge and Emma Corlett (Image: David Hannant)

This report sparked admissions from trust leaders that they had "lost count" of how many loved ones were lost.

In a joint statement, the authors of Forever Gone said they had "no confidence" in the new data collection process.

They said: "Caroline Donovan says this report rights a wrong - it categorically does not.

"Indeed it compounds the harm done to bereaved families who spotted the poor quality of the data, flagged it up, were ignored, and then due to gaslighting were effectively excluded.

"After all the smoke and mirrors, there are still families who have no idea whether their loved one's deaths have been counted.

"The data gymnastics and criteria semantics they adopt in order to obscure the truth are morally indefensible.

"This report does not right wrongs - it further reinforces that NSFT's focus is on reputation protection rather than patient safety."

 Ms Donovan said the Forever Gone authors were invited to be involved in the process but had chosen not to be involved due to "personal reasons".

Mental health campaign chairman Mark Harrison (Image: Newsquest)

Mark Harrison, chairman of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk, welcomed the work but said concerns around care still remained.

He said: "NSFT communicates its work as righting the wrongs of the past - but the wrongs have been largely preventable and the bereaved are still concerned.

"We continue to call for a public inquiry."

Helpline

NSFT continues to run a dedicated helpline for anybody affected by the issues in the report - which can be reached Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm on 01603 518850.