Tees - Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust 2024

Susan Chamberlain

Personal Assistant

Corporate Affairs & Involvement

Tees - Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust

West Park Hospital, Edward Pease Way

Darlington

DL2 2TS

ECT

25260076 – ECT

 

PLEASE NOTE: our Trust operates as two care groups: North Yorkshire and York; and Durham, Tees Valley and Forensics. In some cases, responses are given for separate care groups. We have indicated where this is the case but if you require further clarification, please get in touch.

 

Please provide Electro Convulsive Treatment (ECT) information under the FOI act to the following questions: -

1.Please supply patient’s information ECT leaflet

 

  • We also use the CQC leaflet available at their website: https://www.cqc.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/20120821_mha_ect_booklet_final.pdf



2.Please supply patient ECT consent form

  • Consent Form 1B ECT /Consent Form 4

3.Please supply any ECT reports/investigations

No reports / investigations – York

No reports / investigations – Teesside (Roseberry Park)

4.How many ECT in 2024?

1,294 treatments

 5.What proportion of patients were men/women?

50 men and 64 women

 6.How old were they?

70 were under 65, 46 were over 65.

 7.What proportion of patients were classified people of the global majority or racialised communities ("POC / BAME")?

North York and Yorkshire care group: less than 2%

Durham, Tees Valley and Forensics care group: less than 5%

 8.How many people covered by the equality act - specific protected characteristics - excluding age + gender - received ECT?

All patients are covered by the equality act.

9.How many people were offered talking therapy prior to ECT?

This information is not available in a reportable format and would require a manual trawl of patient records to obtain. Unfortunately, this would take longer than the 18 hours appropriate limit set out in section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 10.How many were receiving ECT for the first time?

North Yorkshire and York care group: 30

Durham, Tees Valley and Forensics care group: estimated 38 

11.How many patients consented to ECT?

This information is not available in a reportable format and would require a manual trawl of patient records to obtain. Unfortunately, this would take longer than the 18 hours appropriate limit set out in section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to complete. 

12.How many ECT complaints were investigated outside the NHS?

None

 13.How many patients died during or 1 month after ECT and what was the cause (whether or not ECT was considered the cause)?

Cause of death is reported by acute trusts and not information that we would always receive. Therefore, we are unable to respond further to this question. 

14.How many patients died within 6 months after ECT and what was the cause (whether or not ECT was considered the cause)?

Cause of death is reported by acute trusts and not information that we would always receive. Therefore, we are unable to respond further to this question.

 15.How many patients died by suicidee within 6 months of receiving ECT (whether or not ECT was considered the cause)?

Cause of death is reported by acute trusts and not information that we would always receive. Therefore, we are unable to respond further to this question.

 16.How many patients have suffered complications during and after ECT and what were those complications?

North Yorkshire and York care group: none

Durham, Tees Valley and Forensics care group: This isn’t something we report on and therefore do not have this information.

 17.Have there been any formal complaints from patients/relatives about ECT?

No

18.If so, what was their concerns?

Not applicable

19.How many patients report memory loss/loss of cognitive function?

This information is not available in a reportable format and would require a manual trawl of patient records to obtain. Unfortunately, this would take longer than the 18 hours appropriate limit set out in section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to complete.

 20.What tests are used to assess memory loss/loss of cognitive function?

MOCA/ Hamilton scale – 17 /Young Mania scale/ Bush Francis Scale

 21.Have MRI or CT scans been used before and after ECT?

No These are only carried out prior if clinically necessary when indicated. It’s not protocol to carry out after ECT.

 22.If so, what was the conclusion?

Not applicable

 23.How does the Trust plan to prevent ECT in the future?

The trust uses ECT as a life-saving treatment. There are currently no plans to change this. It is an approved treatment by Royal College and is recommended in NICE guidelines.

MEDICATION ERRORS

FOI ref: 25260079

 

1.Please supply any MEDICATION ERRORS reports/investigations

This information isn’t held in a reportable format. To obtain this information would require a manual trawl of individual records which would exceed the 18 hour 'appropriate limit' for Freedom of Information requests under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.

2.How many MEDICATION ERRORS in 2024?

1,058 incidents reported (these are not necessarily medication ‘errors’ but incidents of which some, but not all, will be errors).

3.What proportion of patients were men/women?

This information isn’t held in a reportable format. To obtain this information would require a manual trawl of individual records which would exceed the 18 hour 'appropriate limit' for Freedom of Information requests under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.

4.How old were they?

This information isn’t held in a reportable format. To obtain this information would require a manual trawl of individual records which would exceed the 18 hour 'appropriate limit' for Freedom of Information requests under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.

5.What proportion of patients were classified people of the global majority or racialised communities ("POC / BAME")?

This information isn’t held in a reportable format. To obtain this information would require a manual trawl of individual records which would exceed the 18 hour 'appropriate limit' for Freedom of Information requests under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.

6.How many people covered by the equality act - specific protected characteristics - excluding age + gender - endured medication errors?

Everybody receiving treatment by our Trust is covered by the equality act.

7.How many MEDICATION ERRORS were investigated outside the NHS?

Zero

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)?

This information isn’t held in a reportable format. To obtain this information would require a manual trawl of individual records which would exceed the 18 hour 'appropriate limit' for Freedom of Information requests under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.

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)?

This information isn’t held in a reportable format. To obtain this information would require a manual trawl of individual records which would exceed the 18 hour 'appropriate limit' for Freedom of Information requests under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.

10.How many patients died by suicide within 6 months of receiving MEDICATION ERRORS (whether or not MEDICATION ERRORS was considered the cause)?

This information isn’t held in a reportable format. To obtain this information would require a manual trawl of individual records which would exceed the 18 hour 'appropriate limit' for Freedom of Information requests under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.

11.How many patients have suffered complications during and after MEDICATION ERRORS and what were those complications?

This information isn’t held in a reportable format. To obtain this information would require a manual trawl of individual records which would exceed the 18 hour 'appropriate limit' for Freedom of Information requests under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.

12.Have there been any formal complaints from patients/relatives about MEDICATION ERRORS?

<5 (when reporting low numbers we suppress them to ‘less than 5’ to prevent individuals/individual instances being identified).

13.If so, what was their concerns?

We are unable to provide this information as to do so would potentially allow the identification of individuals/individual instances to be identified.

14.How does the Trust plan to prevent MEDICATION ERRORS in the future?

We are working within the Trust to align our processes to the Patient Safety Incident Framework. This will ensure a proportionate response to medication incidents and allow our resources to be focussed on the areas where there is the most learning. We are committed to reviewing our processes and systems to enable as many safety barriers as we can to help to prevent errors.

All our medication safety incidents are reviewed on a weekly basis by our medication safety team and by the assigned reviewer for each indent such as the ward manager.

We monitor for trends and themes and carry out targeted work for improvement in areas. We feed into the medicines management group meetings, which then escalate any changes or items for further approval to the drugs and therapeutics group.

We have implemented electronic prescribing and medicine administration (EPMA) across all our inpatient wards. Having this system in place helps us to address some safety aspects when it comes to medication administration and prescribing.

We have increased pharmacy presence in some community teams to help with some medicines managements aspects, which includes medication safety.