Health trust spends £125k on legal fees
The NHS trust responsible for dealing with mental-health patients in Kent has spent more than £125,000 on legal fees over the past three years to deal specifically with the coroner.
The information has come to light following a freedom of information request submitted to the Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust.
It is the combined total of expenses from 2012 to now, with 2014 racking up £50,904.76 – the highest on record.
Last year £32,199.86 was spent, with £43,893.32 paid out in 2012.
A trust spokesman said: “The number of inquests is based on the date which they were concluded and do not represent the year in which a patient may have died or an inquest was opened. Due to delays in coroners’ hearing inquests, the 2014 numbers are higher.
“The trust is publicly accountable and the trust board holds corporate responsibility for its actions.”
This year the trust, which runs Priority House in Hermitage Lane, Maidstone, and has an office in Union Street in the town centre, has been contacted by the coroner about 103 deaths.
Of these, it has so far attended 19 as an interested party.
This is typically a person or organisation called to an inquest if the coroner thinks they have more than minimally contributed to a death.
An individual or organisation can also be made an interested person if the coroner is considering exercising their duty to help prevent deaths in the future.
Last year the trust attended 16 inquests with this status after being approached about 101 deaths.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust was sent the same Freedom of Information request on Monday, October 21, but had not responded before the statutory deadline.
It is the third inquiry from the KM that the trust has failed to respond to in just over a year.