Lampard Families Urge Mps To Back Their Calls For Immediate Recommendations To Save Lives
Grieving Lampard Inquiry families and survivors have urged MPs to back their demands to bring in immediate interim recommendations.to prevent further unnecessary mental health deaths.
Ten families met with 10 Essex MPs and their representatives at a meeting in Parliament on 12th November to persuade them to support their calls for inquiry chair Baroness Lampard to bring in immediate interim recommendations to prevent further people dying.
The statutory inquiry is looking into more than 2,000 deaths of mental health inpatients in Essex between 2000 and 2023. The families and their lawyers plea that Baroness Lampard makes immediate interim recommendations as people continue to die in mental health units whilst the inquiry is ongoing.
Several people have died in Essex mental health units since the start of the Lampard inquiry.
Stuart Ringer, whose friend Gosia Nowak died while under the care of Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) told MPs: “I am concerned the inquiry is too scared to use its statutory powers and it must bring in interim measures now to save lives.
“They must evoke the powers correctly or I fear this inquiry will be a whitewash.”
Priya Singh, partner at Hodge Jones & Allen, which represents more than 120 families at the Lampard Inquiry, said: “This inquiry is unique. The threat to life is still ongoing – we know people are continuing to die while under the care of mental health trusts across the country.
“We are urging MPs to back our calls for urgent interim recommendations to be put in place now. We must not wait until the inquiry has concluded, or we will see many more awful and avoidable deaths of some of the most vulnerable people in our society. We cannot stand by and watch that happen.”
The inquiry has highlighted the shambolic lack of training around CPR, for example a patient being inappropriately resuscitated on their side. Families have asked that recommendations be made for all mental health staff to undergo CPR training by an independent body. This must be delivered face to face, must be designed to replicate real life scenarios and repeated at regular intervals. Any member of staff that fails to meet the required standard should be removed from the care of patients.
Evidence has also been heard that elderly patients’ physical health has been neglected in mental health wards to such an extent that, by the time serious physical conditions are identified, it is often too late to save their lives. Families are calling for a consultant geriatrician to conduct regular ward rounds in mental health wards to ensure that proper assessment and oversight of patients’ physical health takes place.
Finally they asked for patients to have to give their expressed consent to be filmed by cameras in their rooms. Many patients are not aware that they are being filmed around the clock and families want urgent interim recommendations for opt-in consent for the use of vision-based technology.
The following Essex MPs attended the meeting:
- Alex Burghart (Brentwood and Ongar)
- Neil Hudson (Epping Forest)
- John Whittingdale (Maldon)
- Bayo Alaba (Southend East and Rochford)
- Marie Goldman (Chelmsford)
- A member from Kemi Badenoch’s team (North West Essex)
- A member Rebecca Harris’ team (Castle Point)
- A member of Priti Patel’s team (Witham)
- A member from Nigel Farage’s team (Clacton)
- Pam Cox (Colchester)
The Lampard Inquiry is the first public inquiry in the UK to specifically examine mental health deaths. It was granted following years of tireless campaigning by grieving families whose loved ones died whilst under the care of the Essex Mental health services.