Oxevision in 23 NHS mental health trusts, 2017 to 2026

Findings

Oxevision is a camera and infrared sensor fitted in a patient's bedroom or seclusion room. It can measure pulse and breathing and alert staff. It is made by Oxehealth Limited, which now trades as LIO. At the Lampard Inquiry's October 2026 hearing, NHS England said it had written to the Care Quality Commission on 2 October about ten mental health trusts whose consent arrangements did not follow its principles for digital technology on inpatient wards. It has not named them, and nothing in this report says which trusts they are.

Institrace read every public paper that names the system, its maker, or vision-based patient monitoring: 721 papers from 87 public bodies. Board papers, quality accounts, FOI replies and spend files from 23 NHS trusts record using it on their wards, now or in the past. Seven are in London, six in the Midlands, four in the South East, three in the North East and Yorkshire, two in the North West and one in the East of England. Each trust's dates, papers and payments are in the trust table (CSV).

The earliest record is Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership's, whose spend file lists payments to Oxehealth for hardware and software in March 2017. In August 2018 Kent and Medway began a three-year contract for its Dartford seclusion room, and in October 2018 Derbyshire Healthcare paid Oxehealth £124,060, coded to its Cherry Tree Close unit (spend file). By the end of 2021, 18 of the 23 trusts had a paper or payment recording use. The last to start was Lancashire and South Cumbria, with a pilot on two dementia wards in July 2023. Papers naming the system peaked at 136 in 2023; the count for each year is in the yearly table (CSV).

Some trusts fitted it widely. Essex Partnership University reported 438 rooms with Oxevision in 2022. Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys' September 2023 board papers describe 403 more units across 30 wards, on top of 22 wards already using it. Others used it in a few places, such as seclusion rooms and the suites where police bring people under section 136 of the Mental Health Act.

Papers from 11 of the 23 trusts discuss patient consent for the system: 33 papers, 27 of them from 2023 on. In November 2022 an Essex Partnership committee recorded that the trust was keeping its implicit consent approach (paper); by May 2023 its board papers record patients being told they could decline (paper). Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys' governors heard in March 2025 that a new policy gives patients a choice after the first 72 hours (paper). A 2024 FOI reply from North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare says the system is turned off if a patient does not consent (paper), and Oxford Health's May 2026 board papers describe a full consent model (paper). In July 2026 Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear told its board it is moving from implicit to explicit consent (paper).

NHS England wrote to trusts about vision-based monitoring in September 2023, and published eight principles for digital technology on mental health wards in February 2025. Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys' October 2023 board papers record the letter (paper). Eleven papers refer to NHS England's guidance, all from 2023 on. North East London's April 2026 FOI reply says patients are asked to consent and can opt out, and that its use has changed since it began (paper).

Papers from 6 of the 23 trusts record pausing, switching off, suspending or ending use. Camden and Islington, now part of North London NHS Foundation Trust, paused and disconnected it on one ward in November 2021 after concerns were raised (paper). Leicestershire Partnership's July 2023 board papers record its pilot as paused, and its November 2025 FOI reply says the system is not in use and the contract has ended (paper). Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare's February 2025 papers record that a roll-out agreed in 2023 had been paused (paper). Surrey and Borders' April 2026 board papers say the function to view brief video in bedrooms has been switched off (paper). Pennine Care's committee reviewed its decision to suspend use in September 2026 (paper), and Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear decided in July 2026 not to extend its four-year contract. Devon Partnership, which planned to use it in its secure services, says in September 2026 that it is not operating there (paper).

The spend files of 11 of the trusts list £13.53m of payments to Oxehealth, in 86 lines from March 2017 to July 2026. The largest totals are Oxford Health's £3.36m since November 2021, Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys' £2.38m since May 2025, and Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber's £2.09m since February 2021. The spend reports of six more of the trusts list payments to Oxehealth too: Essex Partnership University, Central and North West London, West London, Surrey and Borders, Camden and Islington, and South West London and St George's. Contract award notices name Oxehealth as supplier to Midlands Partnership University in 2020 (£32,400 over three years) and to University Hospitals of North Midlands in 2021 (£326,400 over five years). Spending records are on Money.

Three more trusts say they do not use the system: FOI replies in 2025 from Greater Manchester Mental Health, Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health and Cornwall Partnership.

The system reaches beyond NHS wards. Devon and Cornwall's police and crime commissioner reported in February 2021 that the force was the first to install Oxevision cameras in custody cells (paper), and Metropolitan Police FOI releases cover its use and trials of the technology. Staffordshire County Council's 2021 review of its care home market lists Oxevision among the technology in care homes (paper). Papers from 26 councils name the system, most often in a trust's quality account sent to a health scrutiny committee. A 2024 review of the Care Quality Commission for the Department of Health and Social Care says the regulator was developing guidance on inspecting vision-based monitoring on mental health wards (paper). In April 2026 Healthwatch Oxfordshire found patients on one ward being asked whether they want it switched on (paper).

Method and sources

Search: the full text and title of every paper Institrace holds, 6.71 million papers from 3,569 public bodies on 7 October 2026, for the words Oxevision and Oxehealth, and for the phrases Oxe Health, LIO Health, vision-based patient monitoring, vision-based monitoring, non-contact monitoring and digital patient monitoring, in papers of every date and in papers with no date. 748 papers matched.

Reading: each paper was read at its first four mentions, with its title, file name and opening page. In the 93 papers with more mentions, the text around every later mention was checked for consent and for pausing or ending use, and read where either came up. For each, Institrace recorded what it says about the system (roll-out, a decision to approve or extend, evaluation, patient consent, information for patients, pausing or ending use, concerns raised, cost or contract, NHS England's guidance, the Lampard Inquiry), whether the body that published it uses the system, and the date of the meeting or publication. Papers where the words meant something else are not counted. 721 public papers from 87 bodies remain. A paper is one file: a committee report and the agenda pack holding it count as two.

Trusts: a trust is counted when its own papers, its spend files, or its quality account in a council's papers record that it uses, has installed, piloted or paid for the system, now or in the past. Camden and Islington, and Barnet, Enfield and Haringey, merged into North London NHS Foundation Trust on 1 November 2024; their papers are counted under North London. Trusts whose papers discuss the system without a record of use, such as Mersey Care, which reviewed a possible trial in 2022, are not among the 23.

Dates: the first record is the earliest paper or payment recording use, and each first record was checked against the paper's text. Where a paper's title gives one date and its text another (one trust policy is titled 2018 and was approved in May 2022), the text is used. 14 papers have no date and are left out of the yearly counts.

Consent and pauses: papers on consent are those whose text about the system discusses patient consent, opting in or out, or capacity. Papers on pausing or ending use record a pause, a switch-off, a suspension, an end of use or a decision not to renew a contract. Each was read in full at the mention.

Payments: lines in the spend files the trusts publish whose supplier is printed as Oxehealth, with the trust's own payment date and amount, credits included. Oxford Health published one payment of £717,493.20 in its August and its September 2024 files; it is counted once. Most trusts publish only payments of £25,000 or more, and the totals are not a full cost of the system. Oxehealth Limited is company 08163325 at Companies House, incorporated on 31 July 2012.

Regions are NHS England's seven regions, from each trust's record in the NHS organisation data service. These figures count what public bodies published. They say nothing about whether any trust's use of the system was right.

• NHS England, Principles for using digital technologies in mental health inpatient treatment and carePublished 7 February 2025.
• The Lampard Inquiry, October 2026 hearingObservations and the use of technology, from 5 October 2026. NHS England's evidence on its letter of 2 October 2026 to the Care Quality Commission.
• The Lampard Inquiry, Summary of Oxevision comparator trust evidenceCounsel to the Inquiry, 10 July 2026.
• Companies House, Oxehealth Limited (08163325)
• Contracts Finder, Assistive Technology: patient monitoring (Midlands Partnership Foundation Trust)Award to Oxehealth, July 2020, £32,400.
• Contracts Finder, Patient Monitoring System (University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust)Award to Oxehealth, October 2021 to September 2026, £326,400.
• Department of Health and Social Care, Review into the operational effectiveness of the Care Quality CommissionPublished 17 October 2024.

Data to download

• Oxevision in NHS trusts' records, 2017 to 2026 (CSV)One row for each of the 23 NHS trusts whose papers or payments record using Oxevision: NHS region, first and latest record of use, papers naming the system, papers on consent, the first paper recording a pause or an end, and payments to Oxehealth in its spend files.
• Papers naming Oxevision by year, 2015 to 2026 (CSV)One row a year: papers naming Oxevision, Oxehealth or vision-based patient monitoring, papers from the 23 trusts, bodies with papers, papers on consent and on NHS England's guidance, and trusts with a record of use so far.

Cite this report

Related

• NHS: the records behind this report.
• How to read public contracts and spend
• All reports

• Oxevision
• mental health
• NHS trusts
• patient monitoring
• consent
• NHS spending