Guest blog: Oxevision, Lampard Inquiry, and NHS surveillance.
This blog is by Rose Powell. She works in a university in Newcastle and is part of a group called Stop Oxevision. They are trying to stop the use of cameras in the bedrooms of people staying in mental health hospitals.
Last week On 14 May 2025, the group was meant to speak at the Lampard Inquiry. This is a big public meeting about the deaths of people in mental health care in Essex. Rose and others had collected stories and information from patients for two years. They travelled to the meeting to share what they found. But at the last minute, their talk was pushed back! This happened because the hospital trust sent another statement. People who came to speak were left waiting and were not listened to.
Surveillance is not safety: Now more than ever
Stop Oxevision is a national grassroots network of Mad and disabled people campaigning against the use of surveillance technologies in psychiatric wards. We have been focusing on opposing Oxevision, a camera-based technology implemented in patient bedrooms, above the bed. The technology takes video footage, along with information about the vital signs of patients, which can be accessed by healthcare staff on the ward. Some of this footage has recently been sent to academics to use in a research study, without the knowledge or consent of the patients involved.
While the technology has been purported to increase the ‘safety’ of inpatients, their experiences under its gaze demonstrate otherwise. Oxevision has been described by patients as a violation of their right to privacy, often used on people against their will, and has been used to deny in-person care. A recent investigation by the Observer highlights the grave consequences of relying on surveillance technology for ‘safety’; finding that the technology has been implicated in the neglect-related deaths of several mental health inpatients.
Clearly – surveillance is not safety.
On the 14th of May 2025, we were due to give evidence at the Lampard Inquiry; a public inquiry looking into the deaths of mental health patients in Essex. We expected to provide details of all the information and patient experiences we have collected over the last two years. However, our evidence has been postponed last minute, due to the submission of a second witness statement from Essex Partnership University NHS Trust.
Our concerns remain as urgent as ever.
Originally spun out of academia through the private company Oxehealth, Oxevision was supported by the NHS Innovation Accelerator – a Government scheme which aims to rapidly accelerate ‘innovation’ adoption into the NHS, “at scale and pace”. Subsequently, the technology was implemented in NHS mental health wards without any reliable academic evidence to support its use.
We believe this rapid implementation and dangerous use of the technology represents a form of (stealth) privatisation of NHS services. The government has handed out contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to private technology firms. This has been actively facilitated by public innovation schemes. Meanwhile, NHS hospitals are in disrepair, wards are chronically understaffed. At the same time, waiting lists for support continue to grow, leaving many without the basic support needed for survival.
Get involved!
Follow us as we continue to oppose the use of Oxevision! Hold its proponents to account for the harm it has caused! Ensure that any ‘innovations’ used in public services are thoroughly evidenced! That they are safe, and support (rather than violate) the needs and rights of disabled people! @StopOxevision on Twitter, Instagram, and BlueSky.
