The father of a 25-year-old man who took his own life while in the care of a mental health unit has said he is 'not surprised' by the number of deaths at an NHS trust that were revealed in a recent report.
Malk Sahota's son Joshua, an IT programmer from Newmarket, died as a result of asphyxia and psychosis while in the care of Wedgewood House, in Bury St Edmunds, on September 9, 2019.
An independent audit into Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Trust, which provides mental health care in the region and runs Wedgewood House, revealed 1,953 patients had died within one month of being discharged.
The research, carried out by Grant Thornton and based on data recorded by the trust between April 2019 and October 2022, also found 8,440 'unexpected deaths', defined as where a patient has "not been identified as critically ill or death is not expected" but who has died within six months of being in the trust's care.
Mr Sahota said of the data: "It makes me really sad, but it does not make me surprised. We finished the inquest and I said 'this is going to happen again'.
"You're not helping people by letting them have certain things in reach of them, so I am not surprised the number are so big."
Josh's family have campaigned for a national blanket ban on plastic bags on wards since his death, but Mr Sahota said he feels his calls were 'not listened to'.
READ MORE: Bereaved mother says report into NHS trust deaths makes her 'sick to the stomach'
"The government and the hospital trusts are just not doing enough," he said.
"There is not a day that I go without missing my son or thinking about my son or wishing that he was still here.
"He was taken away from me and he should still be here. That is the key thing in all of this, he should still be here if there was proper mental care," he added.
In a joint statement, Jack Abbott, Jess Asato and Alice Macdonald (Labour Parliamentary Candidates for Ipswich, Waveney and Norwich North) said: "This is a heartbreaking report which again exposes the shocking practices that continue at NSFT - our thoughts go out to the families who are still fighting for justice.
“As we have said previously, it is clear that NSFT is not fit for purpose and patients, and their families, are being failed. This latest report is a damning indictment of an institution which is simply incapable of reforming itself."
The trust has not commented directly on the 8,440 figure and instead stated 259 people are known to have taken their own lives within six months of being in its care, since 2018.
Stuart Richardson, chief executive of NSFT, said: "Our thoughts are very much with those families and friends who have lost their loved ones and may feel upset by the publication of this review of how we process data.
"We are very sorry that the trust has not previously had the systems and processes in place for the collection, processing and reporting of mortality data that would be rightly expected."
He said the trust has put an action plan in place that would look to improve recording and reporting going forward.
The plan includes establishing a committee for sharing learnings from deaths and relying more on automated recording systems.
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