Bereaved left in limbo by report delays, says mum

The mother of a man who took his own life said bereaved families would be left "in limbo" by a mental health trust's serious incident report delays.

Local health officials have raised concerns over the "timeliness" of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust's (CPFT) reports.

Maria Nowshadi, whose son James died in 2020, said they should be done quickly "so there's answers for families".

Ms Nowshadi said: "These investigations should happen in a timely, quick manner so there's answers for families, but also in case there's any learning to be had... to make sure there's no further deaths that happen in the same way, because of any errors within the system."

She said when the original date the report was due to be completed passed, she "reached the stage where I was looking at the mailbox every day". She said she told a patient liaison officer: "This is actually starting to affect my mental health.

The chief nurse at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough's Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Carol Anderson, said there were "concerns... [around] serious incident processes and reporting" at CPFT.

A CCG spokeswoman added they had agreed an extension with CPFT "for the completion of serious incident reports due to additional pressures due to the pandemic and staff redeployment".

"Our overall concern is the timeliness of serious incident reporting, so that we can ensure that learning is put in place as soon as possible," she added.

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Source: BBC News, 17 November 2021