Prevention of Future Deaths reports · 2014

Rowena Golton

Regulation 28 report to prevent future deaths, reference 2014-0486, written 11 Nov 2014. A coroner writes one of these when an inquest reveals a risk that could cause further deaths unless something changes.

Date of report11 Nov 2014
Reference2014-0486
DeceasedRowena Golton
CoronerJoanne Kearsley
Coroner areaManchester South
CategoryCommunity health care and emergency services related deaths
Sourcejudiciary.uk record · original PDF
Responses published1

The report

Text recovered by OCR from a scanned PDF. OCR is imperfect: check anything you rely on against the source PDF. Reproduced verbatim, including the scan's own layout.

REGULATION 28: REPORT TO PREVENT FUTURE DEATHS

REGULATION 28 REPORT TO PREVENT FUTURE DEATHS
THIS REPORT IS BEING SENT TO:

Manchester Clinical Commissioning Group
Parkway 3

Parkway Business Centre

Princess Road

Manchester

M14 7LU

Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust

1 | CORONER

| am Joanne Kearsley, Area Coroner, for the coroner area of South Manchester

2 | CORONER’S LEGAL POWERS

| make this report under paragraph 7, Schedule 5, of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009
and regulations 28 and 29 of the Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013

3 | INVESTIGATION and INQUEST

On the 10" April 2014 | commenced an investigation into the death of Rowena Kathryn
Golton, date of birth 26.02.1969. The investigation concluded on the 15" August 2014
and the conclusion was one that the deceased had taken her own life. The medical
cause of death was 1a) Multiple Traumatic Injuries.

4 | CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE DEATH

The deceased had a history of recurring depression which became more pronounced
from August 2013 onwards. She had attended at her GP surgery initially and then in
January 2014 had seen the mental health services. A recurring feature throughout her
presentation was suicidal thinking. The deceased had a period of inpatient admission
and subsequent involvement of the crisis team. There was clear evidence that the
deceased needed longer-term psychological therapy. A referral had been made but due
to the length of the waiting list she had not been seen.

On the 6" of April 2014 the deceased jumped from the fire escape at the top of Vernon
Mill in Stockport. At the time of her death she was suffering from deterioration in her
mental illness.

In the early hours of the 6" of April the deceased had presented at the A&E Department
at Manchester Royal Infirmary having been brought back from abroad by her mother
who had travelled to collect her following her admission to hospital in Morocco as a
result of her mental illness. She was assessed as a low risk of suicide and discharged
with a plan for her to be seen later in the day on the 6" of April by the crisis team.

CORONER’S CONCERNS

During the course of the inquest the evidence revealed matters giving rise to concern. In
my opinion there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken. In the
circumstances it is my statutory duty to report to you.

The MATTERS OF CONCERN are as follows. —

- Evidence was given as to the lack of availability of psychological services within
the crisis teams. Following her admission as an inpatient she was then under
the care of the crisis team. Not all crisis teams have access to a psychologist
and the internal investigation recognised that there needed to be a review of the
availability of psychological services to ensure adequate provision and access.

- In addition there was recognition that the waiting times for access to
psychological therapy are significant and there is a greater need for the service
to prioritise cases.

ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN

In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and | believe you have the
power to take such action.

YOUR RESPONSE

You are under a duty to respond to this report within 56 days of the date of this report,
namely by 6 January 2015. |, the coroner, may extend the period.

Your response must contain details of action taken or proposed to be taken, setting out
the timetable for action. Otherwise you must explain why no action is proposed.

COPIES and PUBLICATION

| have sent a copy of my report to the Chief Coroner and to the following Interested

| am also under a duty to send the Chief Coroner a copy of your response.

The Chief Coroner may publish either or both in a complete or redacted or summary
form. He may send a copy of this report to any person who he believes may find it useful
or of interest. You may make representations to me, the coroner, at the time of your
response, about the release or the publication of your response by the Chief Coroner.

Date: 11 November 2014
Joanne Kearsley, HM Area Coroner Manchester South

Responses

1 response published against this report on judiciary.uk. A response is a body's written reply to the coroner's concerns; publication is at the discretion of the Chief Coroner's office, so an absent response does not mean nobody replied.

Response from North Central South Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups (PDF)
NHS

North, Central and South Manchester
Clinical Commissioning Groups

Citywide Commissioning, Quality & Safeguarding
Parkway 1 Parkway Business Centre

Princess Road

Manchester

Tel.
Safe Haven Fax:

22"* January 2015

RECEIVED
26 JAN 2015

Dear Ms Kearsley

Re: Rowena Kathryn Golton (Deceased)

Further to your letter dated 5‘ January 2015 | would like to provide a response to your

points raised.

We have not, as yet, received any information from Manchester Mental Health and Social
Care Trust in relation to the lack of availability of psychological therapies in crisis teams.

ME Head of Mental Health Improvement Programme, is working closely with Trust
colleagues to review service provision across all services and to develop care pathways for

service users.

With regards to Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust response indicating that
they have reviewed access to clinical psychology services | can confirm that the Citywide
Team commissioned a review of psychological therapies (IAPT) with the two providers of this
service in Manchester; Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust being one of the
providers reviewed. | assume that this review is what the Trust response relates to as |! am
not aware of any separate review of [APT being undertaken.

The National IAPT Intensive Support Team was asked to undertake a diagnostic review of the
Citywide IAPT services. The review was requested by Commissioners in response to our low
performance for the national indictors and the need to achieve 15% access to psychological
therapies in line with the IAPT programme and the long waiting lists. An external and expert
review was required to help understand why performance is low. The subsequent report
offered a number of options to consider to more effectively offer NICE recommended
therapies for mild to moderate-severe anxiety and depression, Step 2 and Step 3
psychological therapies (IAPT). As a result both commissioners and providers are working
together to implement the recommendations of the report. We aim to increase access to
psychological therapies by increasing productivity of services currently commissioned and to
align other commissioned services to this pathway of care.

With regards to the waiting time for access to psychological therapies information supplied
in your letter by Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust | would like make the

following comments.

The information in your letter details the activity levels for Clinical Psychology and
Psychotherapy Service in relation to step 4 psychological therapies. This information was

sent to me in a letter by FY (Director of Operations, MMHSCT) on the 23”
December 2014. In her lette ij proposed the closure of the waiting list for complex cases
from the 1* February 2015 until the 18 week referral to treatment pathway can be delivered

by the Trust. | was unable to support this proposal due to patient safety risks.

Following the National IAPT team review and the examination of the Psychological Therapies
CQUIN that is in place relating to waiting times, Commissioners now have a better
understanding of how the Trust manages waiting lists. We need to further examine the
current waiting list information to verify the actual number of patients waiting to be assured
that all possible actions are being taken by the Trust to regularly cleanse and review the
number of patients waiting. We are working with the Trust to improve their data cleansing
and waiting list management processes as we have concerns regarding the accuracy of the

data.

The Trust have indicated areas of significant pressure and that complex cases service are
exceeding ‘the available commissioned resource’. Within the block contract in place there is
no specific allocation for this service or any other Psychological Therapies, with the
exception of IAPT, and so | am unsure what the Trust considers ‘the available commissioned
resource’ is. We have recently made a request to (Director of Finance) at the
Contracts Meeting with the Trust for information regarding the level of Psychological
Therapy input into inpatient and community services to understand which services have

input and which do not.

As commissioners we do not have access to this information and although some existing
service specifications detail psychological therapy input it has become evident that some
services do not have the access we believed was available and we need a clear picture across

the Trust services.

We have also asked for clarification from the Trust as to why they have identified
Psychological Therapies within its Cost Improvement Programme (CIP) plan when there are
such long waiting lists. For the past few years the Trust has identified a significant
contribution toward its CIP plan from vacancies within the Psychological Therapy service
budget and the letter from the Trust indicated that ‘without additional investment the
service does not have sufficient commissioned resource to address its historical waiting list
and provide timely access to newly referred clients’. | have made it clear to Manchester
Mental Health and Social Care Trust that | do not support Psychological Therapies being

included within CIP plan whilst extensive waiting lists exist.

| have asked for a meeting to be arranged with The Trust, once we have received additional
information we have requested, so that we can have a more informed discussions regarding

the next steps in addressing the issues identified.

! hope this addresses your concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me if you require
more information.

Yours sincerely

Executive Nurse and
Director of Citywide Commissioning, Quality and Safeguarding

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