The main chains of private mental health hospitals that serve National Health Service Medical examiners and grand juries have criticized patients dozens of times over the past decade for providing unsafe care.
The Priory, Cygnet and Elysium have been censored at least 37 times for errors and lapses in care that were involved in the deaths of patients, including several children.
After hearing evidence in court, coroners or grand juries identified serious flaws in the care provided to 23 patients who have died while receiving treatment at a Priory hospital since 2012, 11 who were at a Cygnet center and three who were residents in an Elysium unit.
They have found that the same errors occur over and over again on private drives. Key failures have included staff failing to adequately observe potentially suicidal patients, ignoring relatives’ concerns about the danger of suicide, and incorrectly assessing that risk.
The Guardian revealed on Sunday that the three companies earn more than half of the £2bn a year that the NHS in England now spends on outsourcing mental health care because it has too few beds.
Deborah Coles, director of the charity Inquest, which monitors deaths of people while in hospital for mental health problems, said: “The same basic failures lead to preventable deaths for men, women and children. Persistent issues including risk assessments, observations, tie points, and communication between staff or with families are costing lives.
“For years, inspections, inquiries and investigations have repeatedly exposed negligence and harmful practices. Yet the NHS continues to contract with these providers, at significant public expense.
In some cases, the coroner has been so concerned about the evidence he has heard that he has issued a prevention of future deaths (PFD) notice, a legal warning to a public or private entity to make urgent changes to reduce the risk that another person dies. under the same circumstances.
On Monday, Birmingham Chief Medical Examiner Louise Hunt issued a PFD ordering the Priory to make a number of changes following the death in September 2020 from Matthew Caseby, 23., who died after escaping over a fence at the back of his hospital in Birmingham. The Priory took no action despite a previous escape over the same fence in October 2019.
Hunt also advised the Department of Health and Social Care to incorporate national guidelines on the height of perimeter fences and security in outdoor areas of acute mental health units.
Last month a grand jury found that 17-year-old Chelsea Blue Mooney had died in April 2021 “as a result of insufficient care, critically inadequate observations and delays in emergency response” at Cygnet hospital in Sheffield.
Last November, in the inquest into the 2019 death of 16-year-old Nadia Shah at Potters Bar Clinic in Hertfordshire, led by Elysium, the jury found it was due to a “misadventure contributed to by inadequate care at Potters BarClinic”. ”. They cited six specific flaws, including errors in observation and “failure to properly report observations to adequately inform risk assessment.”
It is unknown how many times NHS mental health trusts have been criticized by coroners or juries over the same period. However, in 2019, the Care Quality Commission, the NHS watchdog, said there was a “performance gap” in safety between NHS and private mental health units.
The Priory said the figures for the 23 times he has been censured by a coroner or investigation were “misleading and presented without any context”. He added: “Priory, as the UK’s largest independent mental health provider, has safely and successfully treated tens of thousands of patients over the last 10 years, as a trusted partner to the NHS. Deaths are extremely rare.”
A Cygnet spokesperson said: “Any incident where a user of the service has been killed is heartbreaking for everyone involved. Caring for people with mental health issues is challenging and our staff works incredibly hard to ensure the safety and well-being of those in our care.” Cygnet learns lessons from every death to prevent more deaths, they added.
In a statement, Elysium said: “Over the past six years there have tragically been a small number of deaths in our high-acuity services and our thoughts remain with each family affected. Where the investigations into these deaths have made important recommendations, we have acted quickly and decisively.”
