NHS manager says trust wanted 4,000 reports 'gone'

A senior clinical manager at the trust that runs mental health services in Essex says he was told 4,000 unresolved patient safety reports needed to be "gone", while a public inquiry was under way.

Giving evidence to the Lampard Inquiry, Brian O'Donnell, a clinical lead at the St Aubyn Centre in Colchester, accused the trust of a "cover up" to stop him from speaking out.

The inquiry was set up following the deaths of more than 2,000 mental health patients over a 24-year period.

Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) told the BBC: "All reports are taken seriously, recorded and investigated."

O'Donnell told the inquiry that, at the end of 2024, he was asked to review thousands of incident reports raised by staff, some dating back to 2021.

He said he was instructed by a senior member of staff, who said: "We need to get these gone."

They included incidents involving self-harm, assaults on staff and racial abuse, he explained.

"The first thing that popped into my head was there's an inquiry going on and they're panicking about these because no-one's looked at them - that was my first thought and that's what I still think."

O'Donnell said he initially closed some of the reports but stopped after becoming uncomfortable.

"I thought, I can't put my name to this and say I've thoroughly investigated it because I haven't," he told the inquiry.

Asked what happened to the remaining reports, he said: "They sat on my dashboard for a very long time then disappeared one day. I don't know whether they've been dealt with. I doubt it."

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Source: BBC News, 16 July 2026