Southern Health to be prosecuted over alleged failure to provide safe care
A mental health trust in England is to be prosecuted over its alleged failure to provide safe care to some patients
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said it is prosecuting ‘over an alleged failure to provide safe care and treatment resulting in avoidable harm to a patient and other patients being exposed to a significant risk of avoidable harm’.
In December 2015, a patient who has not been named sustained serious injuries during a fall from a low roof at Melbury Lodge at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, Winchester.
Basingstoke Magistrates' Court will hear the case later this year.
It is the first time the CQC has launched a prosecution against a trust.
Payoff
In October, it emerged the trust's former chief executive Katrina Percy had been given a £190,000 payoff after she left her most recent role there.
She stepped down as chief executive in August, but went straight into a role specially created for her at the same trust with a £240,000-a-year salary and benefits.
One of the deaths not investigated properly by Southern Health was that of 18-year-old Connor Sparrowhawk, who died in 2013.
A jury inquest ruled neglect contributed to the death of Mr Sparrowhawk, who drowned after an epileptic seizure at Slade House in Headington, Oxfordshire.
Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust accepted full responsibility for Mr Sparrowhawk's death.
Afterwards, CQC inspectors concluded the trust was still failing to protect patients from risk of harm.