Ex-NHS nurse says staff apathy 'astonishing'

A former NHS mental health nurse has told a public inquiry that apathy among staff working on wards in Essex was "astonishing".

The Lampard Inquiry is examining the deaths of more than 2,000 patients who were admitted to inpatient mental health units in the county between 2000 and 2023.

Stuart Ayris, who worked as a registered mental health nurse for 27 years, said there was a focus on "paperwork over care" and some staff felt engaging with patients was too difficult.

In a statement, Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT), the NHS trust at the centre of the inquiry, apologised and said care and staffing on its wards had been "transformed".

The seventh set of public hearings is being held at Arundel House in London.

Ayris, the first former staff member to give evidence, worked as a ward manager at the Linden Centre in Chelmsford between 2003 and 2009 and at The Lakes in Colchester between 2014 and 2016.

He said that when he arrived at the Linden Centre, patients were often left waiting for doctors to decide what to do with them and staff did not seem to talk to patients or learn about their lives.

"It just felt the level of apathy was astonishing, to be honest," he said.

Ayris said staff would often remain in offices with doors closed and resisted requests to spend more time on the wards.

"Some people either didn't want to do that or they'd had enough of doing that, and by shutting themselves in the office with their colleagues, it felt safer for them," he said.

He told the inquiry he later became "ashamed" about the lack of engagement with patients after realising how much of their lives could be overlooked.

Ayris also raised concerns about overmedication, particularly at night. He recalled one doctor at the Linden Centre saying "the ideal patient is one medicated to just above a coma", although he said he was later told the remark had not been meant literally.

He said there was too much focus on protecting the organisation if something went wrong rather than on care and compassion.

He described how walls were painted for Care Quality Commission visits, calling it "farcical".

Ayris said patient observations appeared to be increased to "protect the trust" rather than patients and argued staff should spend more time engaging with people rather than simply observing them.

He also criticised the removal of patients' personal belongings following episodes of self-harm, describing it as punitive, and said changes to reduce risks often came only after serious incidents.

Ayris described management as "conflict-driven, arrogant and aggressive" and said senior managers sometimes spoke about staff in a derogatory way.

He said many of the issues identified in the serious incident report he wrote following the death of Ben Morris in 2008 had been raised repeatedly beforehand.

He said he was later disciplined and moved into an administrative role, leading him to believe he was being punished for raising safety concerns.

"People that spoke up like myself didn't have great careers," he said.

Speaking about conditions at The Lakes, he raised concerns about illicit drugs on wards, gaps in staff training, treatment for patients with drug and alcohol problems, poor family involvement, record-keeping and bed shortages. He also said lessons from serious incident investigations were not always embedded.

Trevor Smith, chief executive of EPUT, said: "As the Inquiry progresses, there will be many accounts of people who were much loved and missed over the past 24 years, and I want to say how sorry I am for their loss.

"Care and staffing on our wards has been transformed... to ensure patients receive personally tailored therapeutic care to meet their individual needs."

He said more than 300 new roles had been introduced, including consultants, nurses, psychologists and activity co-ordinators.

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