AN investigation into mental health negligence across the NHS has found Gloucestershire NHS Trust has paid over £6 million in the last five years, for clinical negligence damages over poor mental health services - one of the highest in England.

The investigation, conducted by Medical Negligence Assist revealed Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust paid out the third highest amount in damages settling such claims out of any NHS Trust, totalling £6,035,946.

Since 2019, the Trust has had nine claims and incidents of mental health negligence reported to NHS Resolution, which handles negligence cases on behalf of the health service.

A Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Trust spokesperson said: “We always aim to provide the highest standards of care, treatment and support to those who use our services. However, on the rare occasions when those standards are found to have fallen below what we would expect we have a duty to work with our legal team to comply with medical negligence proceedings.

“We also carefully review the circumstances surrounding each case to ensure all lessons learned are embedded into organisational learning, to minimise the possibility of similar cases occurring again.”

The news comes following the launch of the government-backed Lampard Inquiry, which began Monday, September 9, and is the first public inquiry specifically looking into mental health deaths.