Oh my blinkin-blimey. With news of the NHS England review panel into the deaths of patients receiving mental health and learning disability services at Sloven Towers since April 2011, our backstage investigative tweeters were busy at work.

Before breakfast news was in:

The West Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group reported 36 unexpected deaths as SIRIs (serious incidents requiring investigation) in Slovens mental health/learning disability provision across a ten month period. This seems astonishingly high (almost one a week)* but was no cause for concern (or even note) apparently. Back in May 2013, the Sloven board meeting papers brush over serious incidents with the following flimflam, completely erasing the human;

Eh? There were 10 serious incidents and 5 unexpected deaths involving SIRIs in April 2013 (in MH/LD services) and the Chief Medical Officer just gives a load of figure flannel?

And another peculiar thing. LB seems to be the only one of the 36 patients to get a mention in the board minutes in that period. That now infamous statement about the service user and natural causes back in July, a couple of weeks after LB died. Not a peep about the remaining 35 (and the however many other patients who died but weren’t categorised as SIRIs). That’s a bit puzzling, I thought.

I mentioned it to Rich when he got back from work.

Without a blink he said “Well we’d got our lawyer by then and had asked for all the records. That’s probably why he was mentioned in the minutes.”

Stinky Pete stench at Candour Crush Towers.

*To provide some comparison Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Trust report 8 unexpected deaths among inpatients between October 12 and Jan 14.