Tamara Holboll

PFD Report All Responded Ref: 2015-0171
Date of Report 27 April 2015
Coroner ME Hassell
Response Deadline est. 22 June 2015
All 1 response received · Deadline: 22 Jun 2015
Coroner's Concerns (AI summary)
The trust lacks precise definitions for "good communication," failing to specify exactly what information, by whom, when, and how it should be exchanged, especially between clinicians and bed managers.
View full coroner's concerns
I heard evidence at inquest of a great many changes being implemented by Camden & Islington since Ms Holboll’s death, and I have a copy of your 17 point action plan.

I shall not rehearse those matters now, but I want simply to re-iterate the overarching point that I discussed with your clinical director of acute services.

It seemed to me from the evidence I heard that, when a need for good communication (for example between clinician and bed manager) has been identified, there has been a lack of precision in your trust about exactly what that means and how it needs to be actioned.

Rather than simply talking about the need for better communication, it is necessary to identify that information A must be delivered on every occasion, by person B, at time C, and using method D. Without this level of detail, staff are left with a vague concept and the communication is unlikely to achieve the desired result.

I appreciate that this does not give you much in the way of specifics to work on, but your organisation has already identified these. What I hope to do is to share with you what I perceive to be a recurring theme in your organisation, that has been particularly highlighted by Ms Holboll’s death.
Responses
Camden and Islington NHS Trust NHS / Health Body
26 Jun 2015
Action Taken
Camden and Islington NHS Trust has amended the action plan template and revised guidance for writing recommendations, adding an action row to prompt authors to write an action for each recommendation. They are also reviewing and improving their Serious Incidents processes. (AI summary)
View full response
Dear Ms Hassell Re: Regulation 28 Prevention of Future Deaths report Tamara Holboll (date of inquest 20 April 2015) write in response to the Regulation 28 Prevention of Future Deaths report sent by you on 27 April 2015. You raised in your letter a concern about the lack of precision in our trust with respect to recommendations arising Serious Incidents investigations on the need for good communication. Thank you for your very helpful comment and example ofthe clear format for the wording of actions to address the need for better communication. We have considered your recommendation carefully and we agree with you that we should improve the way we formulate our actions to ensure achieve the desired result: We have an ongoing plan in place to review and improve our Serious Incidents processes; we are committed in particular to improving our ability to learn from incidents_ Before / explain what actions we have taken to improve on this, it may be helpful to set out briefly the process of preparing and reviewing action plans arising from serious incident investigations_ Serious incident investigations are usually allocated to an appropriately trained senior manager (Lead Investigator) from a Division other than the one where the incident occurred (the purpose of this is to achieve a level of objectivity); are supported by a Clinical Expert from the Division where the incident occurred; this person is a specialist cont: Chair: Leisha Fullick Your partner in Chief Executive: Wendy Wallace care & improvement Camden ISLINGTON Cel an NHS Foundation Trust providing treatment and social care for mental ill-health and substance misuse in adults in partnership with Camden and Islington councils . Way from they they

NHS] in the clinical area relevant for the investigation, but have not had direct involvement with the service user involved in the incident: The Lead Investigator and Clinical Expert prepare a report with recommendations following from their findings. Each serious incident investigation has an allocated Action Plan Manager, who is a senior manager in the Division where the incident occurred. The Action Plan Manager assists the investigators with preparing the action plan to ensure that the actions are in line with the workings of the service or appropriate to the Division: The Action Plan Manager also is also responsible for ensuring that the action plan is implemented. The action plan template is designed to prompt the author to allocate a responsible person for each action, a deadline for completion of each action and what evidence is required to confirm that the action has been completed (for example, if a policy needs revising the evidence will be a revised policy): Draft reports with action plan are reviewed by the Clinical Governance team, who may work further with the authors to ensure that the report and action plan comply with the Trust guidance included in the Serious Incident Investigation template. Finally, the report with action plan is approved and signed off by Executive Directors: The trust has taken the following actions to address the issue you have raised in your letter; some of these actions were started shortly before the inquest a5 part of our ongoing improvement plan for learning serious incidents: 1 We have amended the action plan template and revised our guidance to authors writing recommendations and action plans: a) We have added an action row in the action plan table to prompt the authors to write an action arising each respective recommendation. We find that recommendations are usually drafted in rather general and less concrete language, the prompt to produce and action based on the recommendations to remind the authors that specific, concrete action is required. Previous action plan template from former guidance: RECOMMENDATION LEAD TIMESCALE EVIDENCE REQUIRED cont_ 2 from from helps -
Sent To
  • Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust
Response Status
Linked responses 1 of 1
56-Day Deadline 22 Jun 2015
All responses received
About PFD responses

Organisations named in PFD reports must respond within 56 days explaining what actions they are taking.

Source: Courts and Tribunals Judiciary

Report Sections
Investigation and Inquest
On 10 May 2014, one of my assistant coroners, William Dolman, commenced an investigation into the death of Tamara Holboll, aged 47 years. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on 20 April 2015. I made a narrative determination, which I attach to this letter.
Circumstances of the Death
Tamara Holboll died from stab wounds to the neck and chest. Her son, , pleaded guilty to her manslaughter on the ground of diminished responsibility. He has been detained in a secure hospital for an unlimited period. Two days before her death, the Holbolls uncharacteristically sought hospital admission from Camden & Islington NHS Trust, because they feared that would harm his mother. As you can see from the narrative attached, that admission was never effected.
Related Inquiry Recommendations

Public inquiry recommendations addressing similar themes

Standard form for derogations from guidance
Scottish Hospitals Inquiry
No open learning culture
Documentation of technical adviser advice
Scottish Hospitals Inquiry
No open learning culture
Training on normalcy bias
Cranston Inquiry
No open learning culture
London Fire Brigade to establish lessons learned process
Grenfell Tower Inquiry
No open learning culture
Publish Guidance and Board Minutes
Infected Blood Inquiry
No open learning culture
Ensure Home Office staff presence and visibility in IRCs
Brook House Inquiry
No open learning culture
Robust debrief systems for multi-agency exercises
Manchester Arena Inquiry
No open learning culture
National systems to record lessons from exercises
Manchester Arena Inquiry
No open learning culture
Obtain comprehensive accounts from commanders
Manchester Arena Inquiry
No open learning culture
Address BTP systemic failings from Volume 1
Manchester Arena Inquiry
No open learning culture

Data sourced from Courts and Tribunals Judiciary under the Open Government Licence.