Hospital trust which treated Nottingham attacker trying to ‘minimise risk’ of similar incident
The NHS trust facing fierce criticism for its treatment of Nottingham killer Valdo Calocane says it’s doing everything possible to minimise the risk of a future incident.
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust missed opportunities to reduce the risk to the public while treating him for paranoid schizophrenia, a report found.
He went on to kill students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar and former Bulwell Academy caretaker Ian Coates in Nottingham early on the morning on June 13 last year.
He was later indefinitely detained at a high-security hospital to the anger of the victims families who at the time were highly critical of both Nottinghamshire Police and the judicial process and continue to call for a public inquiry.
Senior leaders at Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust told a meeting of Nottinghamshire Council’s health committee on Tuesday, October 8 that they were learning from past errors.
However, some councillors still branded their performance ‘unsatisfactory’.
Jan Sensier, executive director of partnerships and strategy at the trust, said: “I can guarantee we’ve learnt from mistakes and are working on our systematic failures.
“We are striving to ensure mental health support will be there and in the right way.
"We are very confident we can put those things in place to minimise the risk.”
Diane Hull, executive director of nursing and quality,added that they were working with the psychosis team who cared for Calocane and were giving more consideration to whether people were a threat to others as well as themselves.
Work is also being done on how patients are discharged, particularly those with a similar profile to Calocane.
But Coun Johno Lee (Con), committee member, said it was ‘unacceptable’ the trust couldn’t entirely rule out another incident happening.
He said: “How in this day and age can people not get mental assistance?”
He told both Ms Hull and Ms Sensier: “If you were a politician, you would be out of a job.”
In response, committee chair Coun Nigel Turner (Con) said: “We’re not far down the line from tragedies.
"We’ve got to give the trust a fair chance to let them improve services and judge later.”
The Care Quality Commission watchdog is carrying out regular small-scale visits to check the trust’s progress and offer feedback.