hnf-tr.hftfoi@nhs.net
Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust (“the Trust”) thank you for your recent request for information about Electro Convulsive Treatment. We note the information you have requested is an annual request. The Trust most recently responded to your previous request for identical information on 31st January 2025. The Trust respectfully refers to that response, attached for ease of reference (FOI 24 405) as the information remains the same for questions 1-3, 6-9, 12, 15-18 and 20-23.
Please provide Electro Convulsive Treatment (ECT) information under the FOI act to the following questions: -
1.Please supply patient’s information ECT leaflet
2.Please supply patient ECT consent form
3.Please supply any ECT reports/investigations
4.How many ECT in 2024? 31
5.What proportion of patients were men/women? 11 male, 21 female
6.How old were they?
7.What proportion of patients were classified people of the global majority or racialised communities ("POC / BAME")?
8.How many people covered by the equality act - specific protected characteristics - excluding age + gender - received ECT ?
9.How many people were offered talking therapy prior to ECT ?
10.How many were receiving ECT for the first time? 31
11.How many patients consented to ECT? 15
12.How many ECT complaints were investigated outside the NHS ?
13.How many patients died during or 1 month after ECT and what was the cause (whether or not ECT was considered the cause)? None
14.How many patients died within 6 months after ECT and what was the cause (whether or not ECT was considered the cause)? None
15.How many patients died by suicide within 6 months of receiving ECT (whether or not ECT was considered the cause)?
16.How many patients have suffered complications during and after ECT and what were those complications?
17.Have there been any formal complaints from patients/relatives about ECT?
18.If so, what was their concerns?
19.How many patients report memory loss/loss of cognitive function?
Section 40 for the Freedom of Information (“FOI”) Act 2000 states: (2) This exemption covers the personal data of third parties (anyone other than the requester) where complying with the request would breach any of the principles in the UK GDPR. In order to provide the information requested, it would be necessary to access patient records as the information is not held in a reportable format. There is no legal basis to access patient records for the purposes of responding to a FOI request. The Trust is therefore unable to provide a response.
20.What tests are used to assess memory loss/loss of cognitive function?
21.Have MRI or CT scans been used before and after ECT?
22.If so, what was the conclusion?
23.How does the Trust plan to prevent ECT in the future?
Further to your Freedom of Information Request, please find the Trust’s response below:
Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust (“the Trust”) is a multi-specialty provider of mental health, primary care, and community services. The Trust can provide the following information:
Please provide restraints information under the FOI act to the following questions: -
1.Please supply any Restraints/investigations
The Trust is unable to provide the information requested as the time taken to review and redact the reports to remove any patient identifiers, to ensure we do not breach the Data Protection Principals of the Data Protection Act 2018, would exceed the statutory appropriate limit.
Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit is defined in Regulation 3(2) of The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and states that in the case of a public authority, the appropriate limit is £600.
2.How many RESTRAINTS in 2024?
1,683
3.What proportion of patients were men/women?
We are sorry to inform you that the Trust does not hold the information in the form you have requested. We estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the statutory appropriate limit. To provide this information would require us to look through each individual clinical record to extract the information you have asked for.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
4.How old were they?
The Trust is unable to provide a response to this question as providing the age of the patients (a patient identifier) would likely breach the Data Protection Principals of the Data Protection Act 2018 and is therefore exempt under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
5.What proportion of patients were classified people of the global majority or racialised communities ("POC / BAME")?
The Trust is unable to provide the information requested as it is not held in a reportable format. To go through each report and check the patient record to identify their ethnicity would exceed the statutory appropriate limit.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
6.How many people covered by the equality act - specific protected characteristics - excluding age + gender - were restrained?
We are sorry to inform you that the Trust does not hold the information in the form you requested. We estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the statutory appropriate limit. To provide this information would require us to look through each individual clinical record to extract the information you have asked for.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
7.How many RESTRAINTS were investigated outside the NHS?
The Trust is unable to provide the information requested, as we do not hold this information.
8.How many patients died during or 1 month after RESTRAINTS and what was the cause (whether or not RESTRAINTS was considered the cause)?
No patients died during a restraint. Regarding patients who died 1 month after a restraint, we are sorry to inform you that the Trust does not hold the information in the form you have requested. We estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the statutory appropriate limit. To provide this information would require us to look through each individual patient death during the period requested to extract the information you have asked for.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
9.How many patients died within 6 months after RESTRAINTS and what was the cause (whether or not RESTRAINTS was considered the cause)?
Please see response above.
10.How many patients died by suicide within 6 months of receiving RESTRAINTS (whether or not RESTRAINTS was considered the cause)?
The Trust is unable to provide a response to this question as death by suicide can only be determined in a Coronial setting.
11.How many patients have suffered complications during and after RESTRAINTS and what were those complications?
The Trust is unable to provide the information requested as it is not held in a reportable format. In order to locate this information, we would be required to read through each incident description and identify any complications recorded.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
12.Have there been any formal complaints from patients/relatives about RESTRAINTS?
In order to adhere to best practice in maintaining confidentiality, the Trust does not publish numbers lower than 5 as this could lead to the identity being revealed. Exemption – Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act is applied. To disclose the information requested would be in breach of the Data Protection Act (2018).
13.If so, what was their concerns?
We can confirm that the Trust holds the information you requested however we are withholding the information since we consider that the exemption under section 40(2) applies. Section 40 exemptions apply to the right to know information that is personal data protected by the Data Protection Act.
We consider that certain information is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) of the FOI Act on the grounds that it amounts to personal data and the first condition under section 40(3)(a)(i) is satisfied, namely, that disclosure would amount to a breach of the first data protection principle (personal data should be processed fairly and lawfully) as the individuals concerned would have a reasonable expectation that their information would not be disclosed into the public domain. Section 40 is an absolute exemption and consideration of the public interest test in disclosure is not required.
14.Are counts of forced injections available? if so how many people were forcible injected?
The Trust has a policy in place for the use of rapid tranquilisation. During 2024 there were 78 reported incidences of rapid tranquilisation which were all reviewed by the Clinical Team and through the Corporate Safety Huddle and the Reducing Restrictive Interventions Group.
15.How does the Trust plan to reduce restraints in the future?
The Trust has a dedicated reducing restrictive interventions working group which support the monitoring of all restrictive practices in the trust and support reducing unnecessary restrictive interventions. This group is led by the Trusts Clinical Director and is supported by staff and people with lived experience across the Trust. Lived experience and coproduction is a key and important element of reducing restrictive intervention and Policies are co-produced with lived experience to ensure this lived experience is at the heart of everything that we do. Staff training included lived experience stories of what it is like to experience restrictive interventions and key programmes of work, such as positive behavioural support planning and safe wards programme - all 15 elements of safe wards are used across all our inpatient units. The Trust are also active participants within the national culture of care programme which is supporting quality improvement methodology to ensure that our wards are trauma informed, autism aware and culturally appropriate and support anti-racist practise.
All incidences of restricted interventions are reported through our incident management system and are reviewed not only by the Clinical Team, but by the corporate daily safety huddle. A quarterly report is produced for the Executive Management Board, the Trust Board, and the Mental Health Legislation Committee.
16.How many of these restraints were face down restraints?
There were 17 reported incidences of prone restraint during 2024. All incidences were in line with Trust policy and within the parameters of safe practice indicated in the approved restraint training which complies with BILD standards. All incidences of prone restraint are reviewed by Senior Clinical Staff, the Corporate Safety Huddle, the Trusts Clinical Risk Management Group and the Reducing Restrictive Interventions Group to ensure that if anyone is in a prone position is immediately and safely moved to a supine position.
Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust (“the Trust”) is a multi-specialty provider of mental health, primary care, and community services. The Trust can provide the following information:
Please provide SECLUSION information under the FOI act to the following questions: -
1.Please supply any SECLUSION reports/investigations
The Trust is unable to provide the information requested as the time taken to review and redact the reports to remove any patient identifiers to ensure we do not breach the Data Protection Principals of the Data Protection Act 2018, would exceed the statutory appropriate limit.
Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit is defined in Regulation 3(2) of The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and states that in the case of a public authority, the appropriate limit is £600.
2.How many SECLUSIONS in 2024?
158.
3.What proportion of patients were men/women?
We are sorry to inform you that the Trust does not hold the information in the form you have requested. We estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the statutory appropriate limit. To provide this information would require us to look through each individual clinical record to extract the information you have asked for.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
4.How old were they?
The Trust is unable to provide a response to this question as providing the age of the patients (a patient identifier) would likely breach the Data Protection Principals of the Data Protection Act 2018 and is therefore exempt under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
5.What proportion of patients were classified people of the global majority or racialised communities ("POC / BAME")?
The Trust is unable to provide the information requested as it is not held in a reportable format. To go through each report and check the patient record to identify their ethnicity would exceed the statutory appropriate limit.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
6.How many people covered by the equality act - specific protected characteristics - excluding age + gender - were secluded?
We are sorry to inform you that the Trust does not hold the information in the form you requested. We estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the statutory appropriate limit. To provide this information would require us to look through each individual clinical record to extract the information you have asked for.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
7.How many SECLUSIONS were investigated outside the NHS?
The Trust is unable to provide the information requested, as we do not hold this information.
8.How many patients died during or 1 month after SECLUSION and what was the cause (whether or not SECLUSION was considered the cause)?
No patients died during a seclusion. Regarding patients who died 1 month after seclusion, we are sorry to inform you that the Trust does not hold the information in the form you have requested. We estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the statutory appropriate limit. To provide this information would require us to look through each individual patient death during the period requested to extract the information you have asked for.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
9.How many patients died within 6 months after SECLUSION and what was the cause (whether or not SECLUSION was considered the cause)?
Please see response above.
10.How many patients died by suicide within 6 months of receiving SECLUSION (whether or not SECLUSION was considered the cause)?
The Trust is unable to provide a response to this question as death by suicide can only be determined in a Coronial setting.
11.How many patients have suffered complications during and after SECLUSION and what were those complications?
The Trust is unable to provide the information requested as it is not held in a reportable format. In order to locate this information, we would be required to read through each incident description and identify any complications recorded.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
12.Have there been any formal complaints from patients/relatives about SECLUSION?
In order to adhere to best practice in maintaining confidentiality, the Trust does not publish numbers lower than 5 as this could lead to the identity being revealed. Exemption – Section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act is applied. To disclose the information requested would be in breach of the Data Protection Act (2018).
13.If so, what was their concerns?
We can confirm that the Trust holds the information you requested however we are withholding the information since we consider that the exemption under section 40(2) applies. Section 40 exemptions apply to the right to know information that is personal data protected by the Data Protection Act.
We consider that certain information is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) of the FOI Act on the grounds that it amounts to personal data and the first condition under section 40(3)(a)(i) is satisfied, namely, that disclosure would amount to a breach of the first data protection principle (personal data should be processed fairly and lawfully) as the individuals concerned would have a reasonable expectation that their information would not be disclosed into the public domain. Section 40 is an absolute exemption and consideration of the public interest test in disclosure is not required.
14.How does the Trust plan to reduce SECLUSIONS in the future?
Every seclusion episode is monitored and scrutinised closely. A weekly report is provided to the Executive Team to ensure they are aware of all seclusion and Long-Term Segregation episodes. A monthly report with the same information goes to the Mental Health Legislation Steering Group, Reducing Restrictive Interventions Group, and all Divisional Clinical Governance Meetings. Every episode is audited, and actions taken through the individual Divisions for improvement and learning.
The Medical Director engages in discussions with doctors regarding de-escalation and improvements to prevent the need for patients to go into seclusion.
The Safewards initiative has had a positive impact on reducing restrictive interventions and the aim is to keep a focus on this work and ensure the maximisation of all the interventions possible through this approach. The culture of care work programme and MHA Reform QI projects strengthen the journey towards reducing restrictive interventions, and where they are used, to do so in the most appropriate and proportionate way to provide the best and safest experience for patients.
Safewards Update
There has been continued progress throughout the mental health and learning disability units and work is continuing within individual units’ safewards plans to fully embed 100% of the safewards initiatives in all wards. There continues to be quarterly audits undertaken of ward action plans to support all units undertaking all safewards interventions. Training continues to be delivered across all inpatient units, and the 2024 safewards day took place on 25th October 2024. There continues to be a focus in the safewards workplan around staff wellbeing interventions and staff mutual expectations as part of the closed culture and staff wellbeing work.
Reducing Restrictive Interventions Group
The RRI group continues to meet monthly and provide oversight and governance on all aspects of reducing restrictive intervention and supporting the development of good practice. It has a detailed work plan in place to support this agenda.
Representation from across the divisions remains good and representation from people with lived experience continues to enrich the discussion and supports the RRI agenda.
Work is underway to ensure through co-production that service users and experts by experience are fully engaged across inpatient mental health services to reduce the need for Restrictive Intervention and to improve the experience of those accessing Inpatient Mental Health Care.
The RRI group and our staff remain strongly committed to the agenda of reducing restricted practises and working collaboratively with our service users and ensuring the principle of co-production runs through all the group's activities.
The RRI group continues to support the reduction in use of seclusion and supports safewards and positive behavioural support planning to support the reduction in the overall use of restrictive interventions. The Trust is also signed up to the national culture of care programme which is supporting quality improvement within patient care and is working with service users by experience to support the reducing restrictive interventions agenda.
Further to your Freedom of Information Request, please find the Trust’s response below:
Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust (“the Trust”) is a multi-specialty provider of mental health, primary care, and community services. The Trust can provide the following information:
Please provide MEDICATION ERRORS information under the FOI act to the following questions: -
1.Please supply any MEDICATION ERRORS reports/investigations
The Trust is unable to provide the information requested as the time taken to review and redact the reports to remove any patient identifiers, to ensure we do not breach the Data Protection Principals of the Data Protection Act 2018, would exceed the statutory appropriate limit.
Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit is defined in Regulation 3(2) of The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 and states that in the case of a public authority, the appropriate limit is £600.
2.How many MEDICATION ERRORS in 2024?
496
3.What proportion of patients were men/women?
We are sorry to inform you that the Trust does not hold the information in the form you have requested. We estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the statutory appropriate limit. To provide this information would require us to look through each individual clinical record to extract the information you have asked for.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
4.How old were they?
The Trust is unable to provide a response to this question as providing the age of the patients (a patient identifier) would likely breach the Data Protection Principals of the Data Protection Act 2018 and is therefore exempt under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
5.What proportion of patients were classified people of the global majority or racialised communities ("POC / BAME")?
The Trust is unable to provide the information requested as it is not held in a reportable format. To go through each report and check the patient record to identify their ethnicity would exceed the statutory appropriate limit.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
6.How many people covered by the equality act - specific protected characteristics - excluding age + gender - endured medication errors ?
We are sorry to inform you that the Trust does not hold the information in the form you requested. We estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the statutory appropriate limit. To provide this information would require us to look through each individual clinical record to extract the information you have asked for.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
7.How many MEDICATION ERRORS were investigated outside the NHS?
The Trust is unable to provide the information requested, as we do not hold this information.
8.How many patients died during or 1 month after MEDICATION ERRORS and what was the cause (whether or not MEDICATION ERRORS was considered the cause)?
We are sorry to inform you that the Trust does not hold the information in the form you have requested. We estimate that the cost of complying with your request would exceed the statutory appropriate limit. To provide this information would require us to look through each individual patient death during the period requested to extract the information you have asked for.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
9.How many patients died within 6 months after MEDICATION ERRORS and what was the cause (whether or not MEDICATION ERRORS was considered the cause)?
Please see response above.
10.How many patients died by suicide within 6 months of receiving MEDICATION ERRORS (whether or not MEDICATION ERRORS was considered the cause)?
The Trust is unable to provide a response to this question as death by suicide can only be determined in a Coronial setting.
11.How many patients have suffered complications during and after MEDICATION ERRORS and what were those complications?
The Trust is unable to provide the information requested as it is not held in a reportable format. In order to locate this information, we would be required to read through each incident description and identify any complications recorded.
Please refer to Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act, as outlined in Question 1.
12.Have there been any formal complaints from patients/relatives about MEDICATION ERRORS?
Yes, 5.
13.If so, what was their concerns?
We can confirm that the Trust holds the information you requested however we are withholding the information since we consider that the exemption under section 40(2) applies. Section 40 exemptions apply to the right to know information that is personal data protected by the Data Protection Act.
We consider that certain information is exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) of the FOI Act on the grounds that it amounts to personal data and the first condition under section 40(3)(a)(i) is satisfied, namely, that disclosure would amount to a breach of the first data protection principle (personal data should be processed fairly and lawfully) as the individuals concerned would have a reasonable expectation that their information would not be disclosed into the public domain. Section 40 is an absolute exemption and consideration of the public interest test in disclosure is not required.
14.How does the Trust plan to prevent MEDICATION ERRORS in the future?
All reported medication errors are reviewed by the Medicines Safety Team and also in the Patient Safety daily huddle review. This is where contributing factors and learning is identified for each individual reported incident. Escalation and further investigation requirements are decided upon in conjunction with the Patient Safety Team and Medicines Safety, following the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) national framework process. Further review sits with the weekly Clinical Risk Management Group where actions and outcomes are agreed in terms of preventing future incidents and sharing this Trust wide. Monthly and quarterly data is reviewed by the Medicines Safety Team, and this identifies Trust wide themes and trends which then directly feed into learning streams via training, quarterly medicines matters divisional meetings and communicating learning from incidents globally to ensure Trust wide learning. All inpatient areas have an allocated Pharmacist and Pharmacy Technician who work onsite, alongside the Medic and Nursing Team to ensure medicines optimisation standards, governance and national guidance is followed to ensure optimal medicines safety standards.