• Mental health director orders safety review after BBC Panorama exposes abuse
  • Claire Murdoch brands events at Greater Manchester Mental Health FT “shameful”
  • Chief orders “immediate” review of safety 
  • Warns mindset that “it could happen here” must be front and centre

The NHS’ mental health director has branded abuse exposed at a city inpatient unit as “heartbreaking and shameful” and ordered all providers to review their safety.

In a letter to all leaders of mental health, learning disability and autism providers, shared with HSJ, Claire Murdoch responded to BBC Panorama’s exposure of patient abuse at the Edenfield Centre run by Greater Manchester Mental Health FT by warning trusts they should leave “no stone unturned” in seeking to eradicate and prevent poor care.

An investigation by the programme found a “toxic culture of humiliation, verbal abuse and bullying” at the medium-secure inpatient unit in Prestwich near Manchester.

In response, Ms Murdoch said the mindset that “it could happen here” must be at the front and centre of national and local approaches, adding that trusts which already adopt this outlook are most likely to identify and prevent toxic and closed cultures.

Claire Murdoch

Claire Murdoch

She also urged all boards to urgently review safeguarding of care in their organisations and identify any immediate issues requiring action now, such as freedom to speak up arrangements, complaints, and care and treatment reviews. A separate national review into the quality of inpatient care is due to launch imminently.

The NHSE director wrote: “Like me, you will have been appalled at the BBC Panorama programme which showed patients being abused while in the care of an NHS trust. It is both heartbreaking and shameful and I know that patient groups, professionals and partners will want to leave no stone unturned to ensure that we collectively do all in our power to identify, eradicate and prevent this kind of abuse from happening. 

“In the immediate aftermath of the programme we need to proceed on the basis that this could be happening elsewhere. 

She added: “We are urgently considering what more we can do nationally, with regulators, with our inpatient quality programme about to be launched and with issues such as workforce supply.”

The national director wrote that abuse is “grown and prevented locally” by staff taking accountability for theirs and others’ actions and that senior clinicians and managers, quality teams, local leaders and boards are also responsible for having oversight.

She also said she recognised mental health professionals will be reflecting on what they saw in the programme and asking what more they can do to ensure behaviours and actions are not present in their own services.

‘We must act now’

Alongside reviewing safety in their organisations, Ms Murdoch stressed it is “vital” boards ask themselves if the abuse could happen in their own organisations, and how would they know?

She also urged trusts to question the robustness of their current assessment of services and culture, and, after the programme saw patients tell others around them of the unsafe and abusive care they were subjected to, said leaders should ask themselves how they are not only hearing the patient voice, but how they are acting on it.

Other instructions included “doubling down” on the reviews of restrictive interventions and long-term seclusions.

She added: “We must act now to ramp up that action to prevent the formation or perpetuation of toxic and closed cultures, and tackle unacceptable practices; the mindset that ‘it could happen here’ must be front and centre of each organisation’s response to what we collectively witnessed.

“We must prioritise listening to the people we serve and their families and taking effective action when they tell us something isn’t right. 

“The NHS has repeatedly made clear that it expects providers to deliver a safe and high standard of care, and where this is not happening, we will work with partners to take the strongest action possible.”