Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust to issue update on unaccounted deaths
A report problems in the way the trust monitored and recorded the deaths of inpatients and those in the community.
An NHS mental health trust is due to provide an update on its progress since a critical report revealed it had lost track of figures for patient deaths.
The Grant Thornton report was published in June of last year and found problems in the way the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) monitored and recorded the deaths of inpatients and those in the community.
It also revealed out of 11,379 deaths of people in contact with the trust over five years, the number which could have been deemed avoidable was unclear.
The trust maintained most deaths did not relate to poor care, but included natural causes.
On Wednesday, the NSFT is due to present a report to the county council to provide an update on what it has done since the issue was last discussed in January.
The report outlines, mainly, how the trust reinvented its system of recording and reporting deaths, implementing a new largely automated system to replace a mainly manual process.
The new system has been used since November and also uses multiple sources of data which are kept in a single place and are updated daily for both better accuracy and management.
The report states: “Following go-live, the system has been working effectively and further developments and enhancements have been added, through appropriate change control and based on the requirements of the patient safety and mortality teams.”
To prevent data errors, the trust also operates a monthly ‘Demographic Batch Service’ which takes the entire patient database and completes a check on what their current death status is, updating figures where needed.
There are several other measures still on track including the creation of training programmes for new and legacy staff and setting up the framework for scrutiny.
There has, however, been no change to external verification being sought by an external consultancy team, with the trust stating it is currently considering whether it could be incorporated within the 2024/25 internal audit plan.
The need for an independent auditor verification was discussed by councillors and stressed in January by Mark Harrison, from the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk.
At the time, he said: “We don’t trust them to mark their own homework because they proved time and time again that what’s important to them is corporate reputation.
“We’re talking about a huge death crisis of which they are at the centre.”