A member of staff, who worked at the NHS mental health trust that treated Valdo Calocane, has told ITV News there will be “another disaster” in the organisation.
The NHS worker says she was silenced when she tried to blow the whistle over safety concerns at the trust – the stress even led her to contemplate suicide.
It comes as an independent report revealed a series of failures by Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust during the care and treatment of Calocane, before he killed three people.
Calocane, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, killed Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates in Nottingham in June 2023.
The victims’ families are calling for a full statutory inquiry to examine their deaths and “wider failings” in mental health services.ITV News has spoken to a staff member who worked at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS foundation Trust during Calocane’s treatment, though she wasn’t involved in his care.
The mental health worker, who has asked to remain anonymous, claims when she tried to raise other safety concerns at the trust she was targeted by her bosses.
“I was ostracised and victimised by the organisation and I felt powerless”, she told ITV News.
“I felt pushed to the brink – and even considered taking my own life.“
She echoes the report’s findings about over-stretched staff.
“Cost-cutting is down to the bone. We just couldn’t keep staff because of the working conditions.
“People don’t go to work to make mistakes. It’s the system that has allowed the failures.”
The whistleblower told ITV News that lessons have not been learnt and she fears there could be a further tragedy at the trust.
“If staff don’t feel confident to speak up, it will definitely happen again. There will be another disaster at the trust.”
Forensic officers on Ilkeston Road in Nottingham on Tuesday morning.
Forensic officers in Nottingham following the 2023 attacks.
Credit: PA
The independent investigation found that between 2019 and 2023 there were 15 other incidents at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS foundation Trust, in which patients carried out “extremely serious” violence towards members of the community.
In three cases it resulted in deaths. In one incident a patient stabbed five people over the course of a weekend.
And yet, the report concludes, there was an “absence” of action plans and learning.
NHS England bosses admit the “system got it wrong”.
Every mental health trust in England has now been ordered to set out action plans for how they treat people who have a serious mental illness.
They have also been instructed not to discharge people if they do not attend appointments.
