Under-fire NHS trust recorded patient ate breakfast three days after he died

An NHS mental health trust, recently found guilty of serious failings in the care of a young patient who took her own life, has had serious concerns raised over the deaths of 20 other patients over the last 10 years, the BBC has found.

Coroners have repeatedly highlighted issues about the North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), including about the quality of risk assessments and record-keeping.

In two cases patient notes were found to have been falsified. Including one man who was recorded as eating breakfast three days after he had died.

An Old Bailey jury last week found the trust guilty of health and safety breaches in the care of 22-year-old Alice Figueiredo who was an inpatient at NELFT's Goodmayes hospital.

The BBC can now reveal in the decade since Alice's death, NELFT has been repeatedly criticised by coroners for failures in patient care.

In the last decade, nearly 30 prevention of future deaths (PFD) reports from coroners have mentioned NELFT. Of these, the BBC has analysed 20 which raise the most serious concerns.

In two cases where patients took their own lives inquests concluded records had been altered after their deaths.

The most common criticism found the assessment of the risk patients posed to themselves was poor or incomplete.

Cases also highlighted poor record-keeping, a lack of communication between teams, staff shortages and high caseloads.

Two patients who died of overdoses were said to have been on short-term medication for 18 years and 20 years, with no record of that having been reviewed.

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Source: BBC News, 18 June 2025