Jonathan Harris
20 Mar 2024 · Coroner Anna Crawford · Surrey
This report repeats 2 earlier warnings, and was raised again 2 times later. See the linked reports.
The coroner's concerns
1. vacant consultant psychiatrist post in community mental health team
“The court heard that a Consultant [name redacted] post in the community mental health team that treated Mr [name redacted] has been vacant with no suitable applicants since 1 May 2022”
2. shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds in Surrey
“there is an ongoing shortage of available inpatient psychiatric beds in Surrey”
3. risk of future deaths from mental health service gaps
“both of these matters present a risk of future deaths”
Linked reports
Closely relatedConfidence 0.86 · high
Earlier report
“Mr [name redacted] was aged 72. The Community Mental Health Team advised on 18/10/18 that he required an immediate admission for inpatient mental health treatment for his own safety. However, this could not happen as no bed was available within the area.”
This report
“The court also heard that there is an ongoing shortage of available inpatient psychiatric beds in Surrey and that this is in the context of a national shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds.”
Identical hazardConfidence 0.90 · high
Earlier report
“at the time of [the deceased] ligaturing in May 2019 there was an national shortage of acute pyschiatric beds”
This report
“there is an ongoing shortage of available inpatient psychiatric beds in Surrey”
Identical hazardConfidence 0.90 · high
This report
“there is an ongoing shortage of available inpatient psychiatric beds in Surrey”
Later report
“There is a lack of inpatient beds leading to unacceptable wait times in A&E for those suffering with their mental health who are awaiting beds.”
Closely relatedConfidence 0.92 · high
This report
“there is an ongoing shortage of available inpatient psychiatric beds in Surrey and that this is in the context of a national shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds.”
Later report
“The lack of inpatient beds leading to the unacceptable wait time in A&E for those suffering with their mental health who are awaiting a psychiatric beds.”
Responses
2024-0155-Response-from-NHS-England.pdf ↗· NHS England
Stated action · 2036/37
“NHS England is working at a national level to deliver the Long Term Workforce Plan. This is a robust and effective strategy to ensure we have the right number of people, with the right skills and support in place to be able to deliver the kind of care people need. It heralds the start of the biggest recruitment drive in health service history, but also of an ongoing programme of strategic workforce planning. It includes ambitious commitments to grow the workforce by significantly expanding domestic”