Health Trust commissions independent review of homicides involving service users
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which admitted failings in the provision of care to recently convicted Matthew Daley (a 35 year old with known mental health problems who stabbed retired solicitor Donald Lock to death after a minor road collision) has commissioned an independent review of homicides involving people known to their services to “ensure we haven’t missed any key areas of learning”.
The review is to be undertaken by a company called Caring Solutions and will look at homicides involving patients known to their services where an independent investigation was undertaken between 2011 and 2016.
The Trust is keen to point out that they are not be reopening the investigations, simply seeking independent expert assurance that they have done absolutely everything they should have to ‘embed the learning’ which has arisen from these incidents. They have also asked Caring Solutions to examine whether there are any common themes that should be taken into account and responded to.
The purported aim in commissioning the review is to do everything possible to assure people who use the services, their families and wider community about the quality and safety of service provision from the Trust.
Publication of this review is planned in the summer of 2016, after it has been ‘considered by the Board of Directors’.