A HEALTH trust which was at the centre of controversies surrounding deaths which weren’t investigated has made a number of improvements.

The Care Quality Commission has found Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust has improved its investigations into serious incidents and deaths.

During previous inspections, CQC had found the trust did not always do effective investigations and learning from serious incidents.

At the time the trust did not have effective arrangements to identify, record or respond to concerns about patient safety issues raised by patients, their carers, staff or by the CQC or other organisations.

There was a series of scandals over the Hampshire organisation’s failure to investigate the deaths of hundreds of people with disabilities and mental health problems.

In March, the CQC had found the trust was not always undertaking effective investigations and learning from serious incidents.

At the time the trust did not have effective arrangements to identify, record or respond to concerns about patient safety issues raised by patients, their carers, staff or by the CQC or other organisations.

But now the trust has improved the speed and quality of its investigation reports following serious incidents and deaths. In January the trust had completed 97 per cent of mortality reviews within two days of the death occurring.

In the past, patients, families and partner agencies had concerns about the trust`s complaints processes and the quality of their responses.

The CQC found that the trust had implemented changes to improve the complaints system although further improvements were still required.

Inspectors found however there were still delays in providing special mattresses and beds for patients who are terminally ill in community hospitals, and there are also delays providing and repairing wheelchairs.

Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals (and lead for mental health) said: “Overall we believe that the trust has made some improvements. The interim chair and chief executive had a clear vision and understanding of what was required to bring about further improvements and were committed to ensuring that improvement was made in a timely manner. The trust is certainly moving in the right direction and we hope this progress will continue under the new leadership team.

“We will continue to monitor further developments and return in due course to report on further progress.”

Julie Dawes, trust interim chief executive, said: “We welcome the CQC’s report which has recognised we have made notable improvements after our concerted efforts to make care better for patients. This report gives us additional confidence that we are taking the right approach to improving our services. I thank all our staff for their continued dedication to providing the best possible care to the people we support. We are not complacent and fully accept that we have more work to do.

“We have clear plans in place to improve each area that the CQC has highlighted. The trust board has also recently appointed a new substantive Chair, new Non-Executive Directors, and is in the process of appointing a substantive Chief Executive.

“This fresh and strengthened board will bring the leadership required to build on the progress described in the CQC’s findings today.”