A MENTAL health campaigner has called on an under-fire hospital to be more transparent over an internal investigation into a string of controversial deaths.

Former health minister Norman Lamb MP described the situation at Mill View mental health hospital in Hove as "deeply disturbing".

It follows an expose by The Argus which revealed six people had died under the care of the hospital's Caburn Ward since 2011 with four patients committing suicide between March and October in 2010.

The last of the six was Janet Muller, who escaped from the hospital twice in a day on March 12 last year, the second time to her death at the hands of Christopher Raymond Jeffrey-Shaw who burned her alive in the boot of his car.

Mr Lamb said: “To hear that nothing being learned from tragedies is a worry.

“There is an absolute moral obligation to seek to learn from these tragedies and be ambitions to and chance their practice no make sure it happens.

“We need to make sure it happens much sooner and we need to be stopping crisis before they occur.

“It’s not rocket science, but it’s got to be an obsessive need to learn from mistakes.

“There’s a moral obligation for trusts to speak to people about this.”

Nick McMaster, UNISON branch secretary at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said any death in the care of the trust was a tragedy.

He said: “Our thoughts and condolences go to the family and friends of Janet Muller.

“The reports in The Argus are scathing of the trust, and to the public it may seem deservedly so.

“Yet we know that the ward concerned has devoted and talented staff who work in extremely difficult circumstances with often challenging behaviours.

“The reward is high when patients leave the ward having made the first steps in their recovery.

“And the lows are crushing when those entrusted in our care - with whom we have often built up strong therapeutic relationships - lose their lives.

"For staff to be able to accommodate both those experiences and all those in-between requires great strength, dedication and an ability to always seek to learn.”