– December 2005
The six-month inquiry report by Leeds City Council Scrutiny Board for Health and Wellbeing into the Fire Safety Standards of Leeds Mental Health Teaching NHS Trust’s PFI Buildings has just been released.
Trust managers who might have hoped that this would mean the end of their problems were in for a shock; the comprehensive report pulls no punches and the board has asked to be kept informed of ongoing developments.
The report found that there had been at the time, and still is, no explicit NHS Fire Safety guidance for Mental Health facilities over and above the normal statutory requirements for any building work.
This, of course, meant that when the Mount, Becklin and Newsam centres were built the trust decided that rather than construct them to an Acute General Hospital for fire safety [HTM81] or to a less stringent standard [FPN7] relating to ‘patient hospitals’. The trust, of course, decided on Patient Hotels.
The Board requested that the current design review by Accent, who built the centres, and the Trust are brought back to them for review. The Board also expressed its concerns ‘about the lack of a consistent approach towards fire safety training for staff within the buildings’.
This followed evidence from Fire Officer Chris Hindle that staff turnout to fire training sessions was as low as 10% amongst ward-based staff.
Finally the board was concerned about the number of false alarms and asked for an update report on them in 12 months time.
The Scrutiny Board Chair is to write to the Secretary of State outlining its members concern about the lack of an independent inspectorate overseeing the design and operational elements of NHS buildings in terms of fire safety after the report concluded ‘that there is an alarming lack of clarity with regard to fire safety regulations’ within the NHS.
All of this very much puts the ball back into senior management’s court at the trust and many people will be watching to see how they react including members of ‘Leeds Hospital Alert – the Patients Campaign’ who in a letter dated December 15th 2005 have noted that Hindle had been expressing his concerns about fire safety for over three years and that the fire officer before him had also expressed his concerns.
The group has been further angered by the ‘inconsistent replies’ that they have received to a long list of correspondence and states that they now find it “extremely difficult to be believe any statement made by anyone on behalf of the trust’ and as such ‘we feel that members of the public want no further cover ups” and the trust should ‘be open and honest with the public and users of the service’.
Finally and most cuttingly, they suggest the Trust should ‘act in a way public servants should act that is in the public interest and not their own’.
The scrutiny board report comes only weeks after the full Leeds City Council meeting passed a motion calling for a public inquiry into events at the three buildings and has now written to the Health Secretary demanding one.
This was in fact the third time such a motion had been passed but these repeated requests have continued to fall on deaf ears as far as the Strategic Health Authority are concerned.
Following the first call, the Chief Executive of the Authority simply passed the buck back to the council – hence the recent council investigation.
Behind this decision may lie the fact that two former Leeds Mental Health Trust employees and key players in the design phase of the controversial PFI Mental Health Hospitals are now actually working for the Strategic Health Authority.
Step forward Janet Walters, former Leeds Mental Health Trust director, and Rachel Wheeler, from Trust Risk Manager. Perhaps these two former employees can shed light on the bizarre decision to design a hospital for acute mental health patients to the standard of a hotel.
All of which means some of the most disturbed and dangerous patients in Leeds can simply wander off and threaten members of the public.
And this was just what Mark Bullock did on July 27th when after being admitted to the Becklin Centre for assessment after being referred there following an incident the previous day when he’d been found in possession of three knives. Bullock left Ward One at 5.31pm and stabbed a stranger Glenda Trinidad at the nearby bus stop, before calmly walking back into Becklin at 5.39pm.
Ms Trinidad was lucky to escape with her life, requiring life saving surgery and four pints of blood. She is permanently disabled being unable to properly smile.
On December 20th at Leeds Crown Court Bullock admitted wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm and was remanded in custody. It was agreed he was suffering from mental illness requiring treatment in a secure hospital for a considerable time.
Meanwhile health and safety rep Paul Cockcroft received a written warning after an all day disciplinary hearing on allegations of disclosing confidential information and making statements to a third party. [i.e the press]
However the Fire Officer Chris Hindle remains suspended from his job and is now on long-term sick leave.
Speaking at the release
of the scrutiny board’s report Councillor James Lewis had expressed his
concerns that “the trust had tried to block trade union representatives’
from attending the board’s October meeting and he hoped that in the future
that “if members of staff come forward with concerns that they are addressed”.