Landmark inquiry launched into deaths of mental health patients in Essex

A public inquiry has opened, tasked with looking into the deaths of almost 2,000 mental health patients in Essex over more than 20 years.

Its chair, Baroness Kate Lampard, said the true number of lives lost may never be known, and warned of alleged failings on a “deeply shocking” scale.

It’s the first statutory inquiry of its kind looking at the treatment of mental health inpatients, and could have a nationwide impact.