Nottingham attack families to meet Streeting after questions ‘stonewalled'

Independent

8 hours ago

The families of the Nottingham attack victims are set to meet with the Health Secretary following claims that an NHS trust has 'stonewalled' their questions about staff who treated killer Valdo Calocane.
A report into the care received by Calocane, released in February, detailed how he was not forced to have long-lasting antipsychotic medication because he did not like needles, and how other patients at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust also went on to commit 'extremely serious' acts of violence.
The families of 19-year-old students Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, and 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates, said they will meet with Wes Streeting on Monday to discuss the mental health trust's failings.
Calocane, who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, killed his three victims and attempted to kill three others in Nottingham in June 2023.
He was sentenced to an indefinite hospital order in January 2024 after admitting manslaughter by diminished responsibility and attempted murder.
In a statement ahead of their meeting with Mr Streeting, the families said their correspondence with the mental health trust's chief executive Ifti Majid had been 'light on detail, vague, evasive, defensive and contradictory'.
They said: 'Extensive failures of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust have been published in three reports.
'Questions about who failed to do their job have been stonewalled by the trust and NHS England.
'Ifti Majid, the trust's chief executive, has not answered questions posed by Grace's father Dr Sanjoy Kumar.
'The NHS reporting system is archaic and ineffective, as evidenced by the sheer number of reports gathering dust on the 'lessons never learnt' shelf.'
NHS England previously indicated it would publish a summary of a report into Calocane's care due to data protection laws, but reversed the decision and published a full version after the Health Secretary said 'sunlight is the best disinfectant'.
The families' statement continued: 'Other families in the country who have suffered tragedies have been provided only summary reports, which is just not good enough.
'Every family deserves the detail of failures that led to mental health homicide of their loved ones.
'Even recording of mental health-related homicide nationally is archaic, inaccurate and does not give a true and full picture of the problem.
'There is an utter lack of professional responsibility by senior management teams in the Nottinghamshire NHS Trust who continue to take no action against failing medical professionals even with previous serious blunders coming to light in months prior to the attacks.
'This is shameful, wrong and dangerous.'
The statement added: 'The correspondence with Ifti Majid, the chief executive of the trust, has been shocking – light on detail, vague, evasive, defensive and contradictory.
'The trust must not be allowed to rely on an inquiry, which will take years, to do the right thing.
'This is lazy, dishonest, disrespectful and ultimately continues to put the public at risk.'
Their meeting with Mr Streeting also follows a complaint lodged with the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) by the families regarding an 'offensive' encounter with one of the watchdog's regional directors.
Grace's father, Dr Kumar, told the Sunday Times that their meeting with the IOPC nine months after the attacks began with a prayer, which he found 'patronising'.
He told the newspaper: 'I didn't want a prayer, I wanted answers. I've lost my daughter and it was his job to give me the truth, not a prayer.'
An IOPC spokesperson said: 'We can confirm we've received a complaint about one of our directors and we are dealing with it in line with our complaints and feedback procedure.'