The chief executive of under-fire Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust has resigned after saying her position had become "untenable".

Katrina Percy faced calls to step down after the mental health trust was heavily criticised over the deaths of hundreds of patients between 2011 and 2015.

An NHS-commissioned report found that the trust's investigations into the deaths were of a "poor quality" and suffered from a "lack of leadership, focus and sufficient time spent".

In a statement Ms Percy said she would be staying on at Southern Health as a strategic advisor, a role with the same pay and benefits of around £240,000 a year.

Ms Percy said: "I know, and understand, that many will say I should have stepped down sooner given the very public concerns which have been raised in the past months.


"I stayed on as I firmly believed it was my responsibility to oversee the necessary improvements and to continue the ground-breaking work we have begun with GPs to transform care for our patients."

She added that she was "delighted" to be taking on her role as an advisor.

Image: Connor Sparrowhawk, 18, died while in the care of Southern Health

In June Southern Health admitted that it "caused" the death of 18-year-old Connor Sparrowhawk, who drowned after an epileptic seizure at Slade House in Headington, Oxfordshire, in July 2013.

The admission came after inspectors concluded that the trust was failing to protect patients from risk of harm.

In April, Care Quality Commission inspectors found that robust arrangements to probe incidents, including deaths, had not been put in place, resulting in "missed opportunities" to prevent similar events.

Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Norman Lamb MP said that during Ms Percy's tenure "patients and families were fatally let down by a rotten culture".

He added: "The unexplained deaths of more than a thousand vulnerable people with learning disabilities, autism and other mental health conditions were not properly investigated.

"There was a failure to learn lessons despite repeated warnings and this recklessness ultimately cost lives."

Southern Health, which provides services to 45,000 people, has appointed its director of nursing and quality, Julie Dawes, as interim chief executive.