Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS

The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a “zero suicide ambition” being launched today.

Speaking at the National Suicide Prevention Alliance conference in London, Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt is expected to say that “no stone should be left unturned” in this effort.

This will include more in-depth reviews of each patient death by suicide in the NHS, and ensuring all staff are alert to patient and environmental risks, such as features of wards which could be used in a hanging.

Better reporting of deaths nationally could also help different organisations learn lessons collectively.

Mr Hunt will say there is £25m in funding available to support these efforts, money that has previously been announced in NHS Five Year Forward View for Mental Health.

Psychiatrists told The Independent that there is already reporting and review of any patient in contact with mental health services who dies by suicide but a renewed focus could be welcomed.

Dr Adrian James, policy lead and registrar of the Royal College of Psychiatrists said an enforced target of zero suicides “would be concerning” but they support being ambitious around suicide prevention.

“There has been a bit of a defensive culture at times, for understandable reasons, as it is sometimes seen as inevitable,” he said.

“When it does happen it’s very easy to look at the things you do right rather than thinking ‘hand on heart what could we have done to prevent this suicide?’”

“If this is a push in that direction that’s got to be a good thing, but we’ve got to ensure that the resources and the support, and the wider national culture, go with it.

While the £25m fund “is very much welcome”, Dr James added: “It’s still a very small amount of money to focus on an issue which is the biggest cause of death of men aged 15 to 49.”

Suicides cases in NHS services have fallen year-on year for 20 years, but in 2015 81 patients in England still died by suicide.

That year the NHS launched pilots in Merseyside, the East of England and the South West aimed at pioneering suicide prevention strategies.

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust was one of the first hospitals to adopt the "zero suicide" ambition which Mr Hunt aims to make national, and is in the top 20 per cent in England.

Mr Hunt is expected to say: “The UK has one of the lowest suicide rates in Europe not least thanks to some very good NHS care. But the uncomfortable truth is that every NHS in-patient suicide is a potential failure of care.

“If we want to offer the highest standards of mental health provision we should recognise that the causes of an in-patient suicide may be systemic but are never inevitable.

“Every single such death causes untold misery to families and also to NHS staff so it is right to set our sights high and aim for nothing less than zero in-patient suicides.”