'WE CANNOT CHANGE THE PAST, BUT WE ARE COMMITTED TO A MUCH IMPROVED FUTURE'

BOSS APOLOGISES AS DAMNING REPORT PUBLISHED INTO MENTAL HEALTH TRUST

- HELENA VESTY

SOME of Greater Manchester's most vulnerable people were abused; their loved ones ignored when they tried to escalate their fears; and multiple signs to act on serious failings to their care were missed, a new damning report into Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust (GMMH) has revealed.

The region's largest mental health provider has been under scrutiny for almost 18 months after a host of failings to the most vulnerable patients came to light.

The findings of an NHS review into the care and treatment provided by GMMH, published yesterday, say patients were 'denied their basic dignity and human rights' amid an 'insidious decline' in the quality of care being provided to some of Greater Manchester's most unwell people, and a 'culture of fear and intimidation' among staff.

Serious failings of people using mental health services provided by GMMH have long been reported by the M.E.N. 

Young people dying on mental health wards, followed by admissions medical notes were doctored; staff in racism rows; and more than half of Manchester mental health patients not being read their rights have been among other headlines in the last few years.

The trust was plunged into the highest levels of scrutiny by the NHS in September 2022 when GMMH was rocked by a shocking Panorama documentary. It featured footage recorded by an undercover reporter embedded in one unit on the grounds of the former Prestwich Hospital, where GMMH now has a number of inpatient units, from March to June of that year.

The hour-long programme about the Edenfield Centre captured apparent humiliation, verbal abuse, mocking and assault of patients plus alleged falsification of medical paperwork.

The lengthy new report details the reasons why the abuse at Edenfield Centre was allowed to proliferate, as well as the wider problems causing havoc across the trust.