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UK: Exclusive: Trusts fail to report hundreds of mental health patient deaths to coroners

12 August 2016

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"Hundreds of patients who died while being detained under the Mental Health Act could have been denied inquests, it has emerged after HSJ uncovered discrepancies in official data.

By law all deaths in state detention should be examined by a coroner. However, inconsistencies between official data on deaths reported to coroners in England and Wales and notifications sent to health regulators by NHS trusts, suggest coroners may not have conducted inquests into every death.

Between 2011 and 2014 a total of 373 deaths of people detained under the Mental Health Act were reported to coroners in England and Wales, according to data held by the Ministry of Justice. In contrast, data compiled over the same period by the Care Quality Commission and Health Inspectorate for Wales, and supplied to the government’s Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody, show a total 1,115 deaths – 742 more than was reported to coroners."

See the article: Exclusive: Trusts fail to report hundreds of mental health patient deaths to coroners (INQUEST, link)

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