By Emily Townsend | 16 February 2022 HSJ

Deaths of two mental health patients in covid lockdown spark coroner concern Prevention of future deaths reports raise alarm over systemic failures at troubled trust Independent inquiry already probing string of inpatient deaths between 2000 and 2020 Essex Partnership University FT CEO says it has already taken action over reports

A coroner is warning that if systemic problems within mental healthcare at a troubled provider are not addressed there is a ‘real risk of future deaths’, new reports sent to the trust and NHS England reveal.

Michelle Brown, area coroner for Essex, issued two prevention of future deaths reports in January and February into the deaths of Benjamin Stroud and Jan Goodliffe, who were both under the care of Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust.

The reports into the deaths of two men cared for in the community, and who had once been inpatients, come ahead of an independent inquiry examining the deaths of inpatients at the former North Essex Partnership FT, the former South Essex Partnership FT and EPUT, between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2020.