Staff will be compelled to give evidence to an inquiry examining around 2,000 mental health patient deaths if there is not a “quantum leap” in co-operation, according to the Government.

Health minister Neil O’Brien said the Government will “not hesitate” to put the Essex Mental Health Independent Inquiry on a statutory footing if it does not see a “dramatic increase in the level of co-operation” from current and former employees.

His remarks came as Essex MPs used a parliamentary debate to raise concerns about the “shockingly low” level of responses from Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) staff.

Dr Geraldine Strathdee, chairwoman of the Essex Mental Health Independent Inquiry, is gathering evidence about mental health inpatient deaths in the county over a 21-year period.

There's been a number of deaths of Essex people who were in the care of the mental health services.

Chris Nota, 19, died after falling into the Queensway underpass on July 8, 2020, less than a month after he was discharged from a mental health unit on June 9.

An inquest found failings by medical staff who lacked experience of autism had a bearing on the death of the man. 

An initial figure of 1,500 deaths was based on information from EPUT and announced in March 2022.

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All of the 1,500 people died while they were a patient on a mental health ward in Essex, or within three months of being discharged, between 2000 and 2020.It was confirmed this month that the number of deaths under investigation is now closer to 2,000.

Dr Strathdee also described the number of responses to the inquiry from current and former staff as “hugely disappointing”.

Conservative former minister Sir James Duddridge, MP for Rochford and Southend East, said the approach taken “simply hasn’t worked”, adding: “Unless the department and EPUT transform miraculously over the next four weeks, the only real option is a statutory inquiry, and she has our full support.

”The debate heard EPUT’s chief executive wrote to MPs on January 19 and noted a public inquiry could bring “consequent delays and costs, and the trust needs to be focused on continued improvement to services at a time of rising demand, both in numbers and in complexity of cases”.

Mr O’Brien, replying for the Government, said: “Our view was and is that a non-statutory inquiry, if it is possible, remains the most effective way to get to the truth of what happens.“It is quicker, and potentially involves not having to drag clinicians through the public processes of a statutory inquiry.”

He added: “Although statutory inquiries can compel witnesses to give evidence under oath, that does not necessarily mean that it will be easier to obtain the evidence we want.“However, all that turns on people co-operating with a non-statutory inquiry, and what we need to now see is a quantum leap in the level of co-operation.

“We will not hesitate to move to a statutory inquiry if we don’t see a dramatic increase in the level of co-operation.

“Given how long this has gone on, we cannot wait for a long period for a transformation in the level of engagement.“While for now the approach remains a non-statutory inquiry, we will not hesitate to change that approach if we do not see the change we need over a rapid period of time.”