ESSEX NHS TRUST MANAGER TELLS INQUIRY OF 4,000 UNRESOLVED SAFETY REPORTS

A senior clinical manager at Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust told the Lampard Inquiry that he was instructed to dispose of approximately 4,000 unresolved patient safety reports whilst a public inquiry into the trust was under way. Brian O'Donnell, a clinical lead at the St Aubyn Centre in Colchester, said he was asked to review the reports at the end of 2024, some of which dated back to 2021. The reports included incidents involving self-harm, assaults on staff and racial abuse. O'Donnell stated he initially closed some reports but stopped after becoming uncomfortable with the process, and said the remaining reports subsequently disappeared from his system.

O'Donnell told the inquiry he believed the trust was "panicking" about the backlog of unresolved reports and accused it of attempting to cover up the situation. He described the instruction he received as "We need to get these gone" rather than a request for thorough investigation. O'Donnell said he could not investigate the reports properly and declined to put his name to conclusions he had not personally verified. He also raised concerns about staffing levels at the trust, stating that staff who reported concerns were often regarded as troublemakers and that rotas showed persistent gaps.

Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust told the BBC that "all reports are taken seriously, recorded and investigated". The Lampard Inquiry was established following recorded deaths of more than 2,000 mental health patients at the trust over a 24-year period. O'Donnell's testimony forms part of the ongoing public inquiry into the trust's practices and patient safety procedures.