An NHS trust has ended the use of a monitoring system that continuously records video of mental health patients in their bedrooms amid concerns it allows trauma to resurface in sexually abused women.
Camden and Islington NHS foundation trust (C&I) discontinued use of the Oxevision system after female patients and staff warned that it undermined the care of victims of sexual abuse and assault.
Campaigners against violence against women called on the other 22 NHS trusts using Oxevision in some psychiatric wards to stop using it – or review its purpose in monitoring patients’ vital signs.
C&I used the system in the Rosewood unit, based at St Pancras hospital, which is dedicated to treating the trust’s most vulnerable female psychiatric patients, who include survivors of sexual assault and childhood abuse.
The trust suspended its use of Oxevision, which allows staff to monitor a patient’s pulse and breathing rate via an optical sensor, in November after patients complained they were being covertly surveilled.
As part of an internal review into whether to resume using the system, C&I’s women’s strategy group contended that it compromised the trust’s commitment to providing trauma-informed care.
The group, which includes staff and patients, said: “Women in inpatient mental health services are disproportionately affected by adverse childhood events including sexual abuse and adult experiences of sexual assault and domestic abuse.
