SOME JUSTICE AT LAST BUT TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

At last some justice has been obtained for silenced patients and their families as a  hospital trust has been fined more than £500,000 and a ward manager given a six-month suspended sentence over the death of a 22-year-old woman on a mental health unit.

Alice Figueiredo was being deprived of her liberty at Goodmayes Hospital in Ilford when she took her own life, having previously made many similar attempts.

The North-East London Foundation NHS Trust (NELFT), which runs the hospital, and ward manager Benjamin Aninakwa, 53, were convicted of health and safety offences in June when an Old Bailey jury found they utterly failed to prevent Ms Figueiredo’s death. 

NELFT was fined £565,000 and Aninakwa must also complete 300 hours of unpaid community service. It should be ensured that he and others involved in this case never work in care again. 

The lesson from this case should not be missed.  The neglect, hidden behind closed  doors and incredibly protected by court gagging orders is happening in every Health Trust in the country.  This is by no means an isolated case and if lessons are to be leaned then fundamental changes in mental health care law are needed.  

The NHS and Local Authorities are complicit in a system that leads to thousands of patients and their families are given appallingly negligent and inadequate treatment and the system is designed to keep it from the public attention.  Even more incredibly family members of patients risk prion for contempt of court by bringing this to the public attention.

While a code of silence is abused by those given responsibility, to some of the most vulnerable in society it is not surprising that young lives are lost and vast amounts of public money are wasted in litigation against the carers trying to get redress for their loved ones.   

It is remarkable that the NHS Trusts and Local Authorities have no shortage of money to pay lawyers to fight patents relatives while simultaneously complaining of a lack of resources. The government need to look seriously at the use of strategic litigation against public participation to obtain gagging orders by NHS and local authority legal departments.