An inquiry into the deaths of more than 2,000 mental health patients in Essex will feature difficult discussions on issues such as compassion fatigue among staff, its chairwoman has said. The Lampard Inquiry is examining deaths at NHS-run inpatient units in Essex between 2000 and 2023 and has previously heard from grieving families about the care their loved ones received.
The deaths in scope of the inquiry will include those who died within three months of discharge, and those who died as inpatients receiving NHS-funded care in the independent sector. At a hearing last year the chairwoman of the inquiry, Baroness Kate Lampard, said “we may never know” the true number of people who died. She warned it is expected to be “significantly in excess” of the 2,000 deaths previously reported.
In an opening statement on Monday (April 28), marking the start of the latest three-week block of hearings, she said the inquiry would confront “big and difficult questions” head on. “At future hearings the inquiry will… explore evidence on relevant themes and issues, some of which are likely to evoke strong opinions and give rise to conflicting viewpoints,” she told the inquiry, which is sitting at Arundel House in central London.
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“For example, in future the inquiry is minded to hear evidence on the preventability of suicide and whether suicide should be considered theoretically preventable in each and every case. The concept of compassion fatigue in those working in mental healthcare which is where the prolonged exposure to the suffering of others leads to a decline in empathy and compassion.
“The circumstances where it is and where it is not appropriate to detain someone under the Mental Health Act. The balance to be struck in mental healthcare and treatment between risk management and therapy. I understand these will be difficult discussions but an inquiry of this scope and importance cannot do anything but confront head on these big and difficult questions.
“There will be topics that this inquiry covers that will be challenging for some people to listen to which is why I wanted to acknowledge that now from the very start of these evidential hearings.” She said the inquiry is “breaking new ground” as it is the “first UK public inquiry to investigate mental healthcare”.
Addressing the purpose of the current block of hearings, beginning on Monday and ending on May 15, she said that evidence would be heard that would give “important contextual background on mental health inpatient care in Essex”.
“We will hear from medical experts, healthcare providers and other relevant organisations on topics such as what good mental healthcare should have been at various points over the 24 year period in scope,” she said. Baroness Lampard said that this was the “start of us exploring the background and context to our inquiry – a process that will examine matters with greater specificity over the next 18 months of hearings”.
She said that following the inquiry she will set out findings and recommendations in a report. “Although the focus is on Essex the inquiry is of national significance and wherever possible my ambition is to make lasting positive recommendations to improve mental healthcare right across the country,” said Baroness Lampard.
