Families bereaved by deaths on English mental health wards have called for Oxevision, an infrared camera monitoring system used in half of the country's mental health wards, to be banned, telling an inquiry that patients' lives are at stake.
The Lampard inquiry into mental health deaths in Essex heard on Tuesday that five patients killed themselves, or died unexpectedly, over two years while being monitored by the system at Essex Partnership University NHS foundation trust.
Peter Mant KC, who represents more than 70 bereaved families, including the family of Elise Sebastian, 16, who killed herself in 2021 after staff muted Oxevision's alarm system, said the technology had contributed in material ways to harms and, in some cases, deaths of patients, due to its misapplication.
Mant told the inquiry the remote system had far too often been used as a substitute for in-person observations, causing missed opportunities for therapeutic engagement that expert witnesses regard as critical to treatment and recovery. He said claims made for the system's effectiveness by Lio, its Oxford-based manufacturer, rested on nothing more than unverified anecdote, and that the inquiry's own statisticians found no evidence to support its effectiveness. He urged the inquiry chair, Kate Lampard, to issue interim recommendations for mandatory life-saving training for all mental health staff and for the suspension of Oxevision, to reduce the risk of further avoidable deaths.
Brenda Campbell KC, representing families including that of Sophie Alderman, who mistakenly believed in 2022 that Oxevision would bring staff to save her, said the system's harms had fallen hardest on detained, traumatised and neurodivergent patients, and that no regulator had taken responsibility for it. She described a camera in a bedroom as a significant invasion of privacy, affording patients no sanctuary and no means of knowing when they were being watched, and cited evidence that the devices can increase paranoia and prompt some patients to scream at them. Addressing Lampard, she said the residual claims of limited clinical benefit for Oxevision did not outweigh the significant harm to patient safety, autonomy and privacy.
Lady Lampard is considering whether to issue interim regulations, including over the use of Oxevision, if she considers action necessary to prevent more deaths. The inquiry, which began in 2024, is examining more than 2,000 mental health deaths in Essex over a 23-year period. The Information Commissioner's Office opened a separate inquiry into the technology earlier this year over data protection concerns.
Giving evidence last week, Laura Cozens, head of patient safety at Lio, said it was important to consider the benefits the technology could offer mental health patients. She said: "The evidence that we have heard shouldn't be interpreted as the Oxevision system being ineffective, or unsafe or of no benefit … The technology has assisted staff in intervening in critical safety incidents."