The inquiry was told that five patients killed themselves, or died unexpectedly, in two years while being surveilled by Oxevision\u2019s infrared cameras at Essex Partnership University NHS<\/a> foundation trust.<\/p>\n Peter Mant KC, representing more than 70 bereaved families, including the family of Elise Sebastian, 16, who killed herself in 2021 when staff had muted Oxevision\u2019s alarm system, said: \u201cUse of this technology has contributed in material ways to harms, and in some cases deaths of patients, due to the misapplication of the system.\u201d<\/p>\n Addressing Kate Lampard, the chair of the inquiry, Brenda Campbell KC said: \u201cWe urge you to recommend that the use of Oxevision on mental health inpatient wards is stopped nationally.\u201d<\/p>\n Campbell, who is representing other bereaved families, including that of Sophie Alderman who the inquiry heard mistakenly believed in 2022 that Oxevision would bring staff to save her, added: \u201cIts harms have fallen hardest on detained, traumatised and neurodivergent patients, and no regulator took responsibility for it.\u201d<\/p>\n Lady Lampard is considering issuing interim regulations, including over the use of Oxevision, if she considers action necessary to prevent more deaths.<\/p>\n Her inquiry, which began in 2024<\/a> into more than 2,000 mental health deaths in Essex over a 23-year period, has heard harrowing evidence of avoidable self-harm and suicides at the Essex trust and predecessor NHS organisations.<\/p>\n On behalf of her clients, Campbell urged Lampard to halt the use of Oxevision in the NHS. Mant agreed and said there was confusion among nursing staff, patients and hospital managers about how Oxevision should be used. He said the remote system had frequently prevented vital in-person care.<\/p>\n Mant told the inquiry: \u201cIt has far too often been used as a substitute for in-person observations.\u201d Citing evidence from expert witnesses to the inquiry, he said this had led to \u201cmissed opportunities for therapeutic engagement between staff and their patients \u2026 in circumstances where therapeutic engagement is something that your experts agree is absolutely critical to treatment and recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n Mant said claims made for the effectiveness of Oxevision by Lio, its Oxford-based manufacturer, were based on \u201cnothing more than unverified anecdote\u201d. The inquiry\u2019s own statisticians found no evidence to support its effectiveness, he added.<\/p>\n He urged Lampard to issue interim recommendations for mandatory life-saving training for all mental health staff and the suspension of Oxevision. \u201cMy clients ask you to make those recommendations now to reduce the risk that other patients will suffer harm and that other families will lose loved ones to avoidable deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n Campbell said the \u201cintrusive\u201d nature of the camera technology created a \u201ccoercive power imbalance on psychiatric wards\u201d between patients and staff. She added: \u201cA camera in a bedroom is a very significant invasion of privacy, affording patients no sanctuary and no means of knowing when they are being watched.\u201d<\/p>\n Citing evidence to the inquiry from Jill Archibald, an expert on mental nursing, Campbell said Oxevision\u2019s cameras can \u201cincrease paranoia\u201d and prompted some patients to \u201cscream at the device\u201d.<\/p>\n
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