Friends of teacher who hanged herself hit out at hospital which ‘failed to keep her safe’

Jessica Philpott, 38, who suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder, had been a voluntary patient at Mill View Hospital in Hove, East Sussex, which had previously been reviewed over patient suicides.

‘Her death should never have happened’: Friends of teacher who hanged herself hit out at hospital which ‘failed to keep her safe’

• Jessica Philpott, 38, had made two apparent attempts to hang herself on the ward on the night she was found but was still allowed out unsupervised
• Staff allegedly told a patient that they thought she was attention-seeking and hadn’t actually wanted to kill herself

By CLAIRE ELLICOTT

Friends of a former teacher who was found hanging at a psychiatric hospital have criticised the Trust for failing to keep her safe.

Jessica Philpott, 38, who suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder, had been a voluntary patient at Mill View Hospital in Hove, East Sussex, which had previously been reviewed over patient suicides. The local news posted an article Mill View Hospital regarding patient suicides, click to visit the article.

A jury returned a verdict that Miss Philpott died of hanging which was linked to her condition, but said they could not be sure she intended to kill herself.

Yesterday, her close friends said that she should not have been allowed to die in a ‘place of safety’which had a ‘duty of care’towards her.

The five-day inquest at Brighton Coroner’s Court heard that the former assistant head of year was found hanging in the garden of the hospital.

The garden had not been risk-assessed for ligature points and could not be seen from the main hospital because of its situation and because a light was not working.

A Care Quality Commission report that identified ‘major concerns’ about the safety of vulnerable people because of the number of ligature points at the hospital also failed to include the garden.

The inquest was told that the nurse most closely involved in her community care had contacted the hospital to warn them she was considering ‘final acts’

 Read the Entire Article at the Daily Mail