The families of people who have died in the care of Norfolk and Suffolk Mental Health Services have said the tragic case of a suspected suicide man and his family underlines the need for a statutory inquiry into the NHS trust.
Bartlomiej Kuczynski, 45, was found dead at his home in Costessey, near Norwich, earlier this month, along with his two daughters and their aunt. Just over an hour earlier, he had called 999 to express concern about his mental state and was told to seek medical attention.
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has confirmed it had previously been in contact with Kuczynski before the murders. The trust has already come under scrutiny for the unexpected deaths of 8,440 patients or former patients in a three-and-a-half year period.
In a statement, the trust said Kuczynski was “already known to our services” when he was taken to Norfolk and Norwich Hospital by police on December 14. By the time a mental health specialist from the trust arrived to assess Kucyznski, he had already dismissed himself.
NSFT has launched an “externally led serious incident review” into its contact with Kuczynski.
The Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk, which also includes people with relatives who have committed suicide while under NSFT care, said the deaths in Costessey highlighted the need for the trust to be dissolved and replaced and its inability of being subject to legal investigation.
Its chairman, Mark Harrison, said the killings showed the system was broken: “We need immediate change because people are still dying.
“NSFT does not have effective community services. It does not have an assertive outreach approach and the crisis team is not fit for purpose. All the things that would have helped him (Kuczynski) live safely in the community are no longer there because they got rid of them.
The group, which was founded in 2013, claims to be the largest local mental health campaign in Britain, representing staff, service users and thousands of people who have lost loved ones in the trust’s care.
Harrison said the trust’s failures stemmed from budget cuts. He said: “It goes back to the 2010 austerity programme. They have cut all the services that supported people in acute mental need to live in the community.”
Harrison said he was wary of a trust-led investigation into Kuczynski’s contact. He said: “The worrying thing is that NSHT will be conducting their own investigation, i.e. marking their own homework. I wouldn’t trust that.”
He contrasted the way Norfolk Police came under scrutiny from the Independent Office for Police Conduct over the incident after the force referred itself to the watchdog. “Where is the external watchdog for the NSFT?” he asked.
The campaign has also been alarmed by a decision by police to stop attending mental health emergency calls, under an initiative known as ‘right care, right person’ (RCRP). The approach is defended by police chief Mark Rowley, who says officers have been distracted from their core task: fighting crime.
Norfolk Police have been training staff on the policy since last summer, before its planned formal launch next month was postponed.
Harrison said the inability of police to visit Kuczynski’s home after his 999 call, and advising him to seek medical attention, showed the dangers of the policy.
He said: “The Costessey murders highlight the recklessness of RCRP. Transferring people who are in acute mental distress ultimately leads to people’s deaths.”
On Monday, the campaign in a letter to Norfolk Police Chief Paul Sandford called for RCRP to be “immediately defunded.” It said: “We have serious concerns about the safety of our communities in the current mental health climate in Norfolk and Suffolk. We fear that services in our areas are not currently robust enough to effectively address and manage new changes without additional damage.”
It added: “It is clear that NSFT and other services are currently struggling to manage cases with well-established policies and procedures. We believe that any change and additional pressure on existing mental health services can only escalate and worsen services in crisis.”
The letter described the trust as “one of the worst, if not the worst, in Britain”.
NSFT has been rated ‘inadequate’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) four times in the past eight years. But at the last inspection it was moved up to ‘requires improvement’.
On Tuesday, a committee of Norfolk district councilors, who oversee NSFT, backed the campaign’s call for a statutory inquiry into the way deaths were reported and recorded at the trust. In a letter to Health Secretary Victoria Atkins, the committee raised “ongoing concerns” about its services and requested a further CQC inspection.
NSFT has been contacted for comment.