Girl 'punished not helped' at hospital - inquest

Ruth Szymankiewicz was "treated like a naughty child" her father told the inquest

A father has told an inquest how his teenage daughter who died after being left unsupervised at a mental health hospital was "treated like a naughty child".

Mark Szymankiewicz said his daughter Ruth was "punished not helped or supported" while at Huntercombe Hospital, near Maidenhead.

The 14-year-old, from Salisbury, was being treated for an eating disorder and should have been under constant supervision when she self-harmed and later died, the inquest heard.

The hospital, which has since shut down, was rated inadequate and later requires improvement by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2021.

Ruth was unaccompanied for about 15 minutes and left alone to walk around the hospital and to her room, assistant coroner Ian Wade KC said.

Shortly afterwards, she was found unconscious and died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford two days later.

Ruth was initially cared for on the children's ward at Salisbury Hospital, before being transferred to Southampton.

She was then moved to Huntercombe Hospital, which Mr Szymankiewicz said "managed her but did not help her with her issues or problems".

The inquest heard that in a letter to one of the psychologists, Ruth wrote that she went to Huntercombe for help but they did not help her, and that staff "never listened" to her.

Kate Szymankiewicz said her daughter was "isolated" due to the restrictions on family visits and without her family she had "no emotional support system".

She said: "The system really did fail her, the team of doctors tried to help but she was let down."

Dr Szymankiewicz said she "repeatedly asked the team at Huntercombe to allow for more family visitors and requested to take her out, as she loved being outside".

"But all of these were refused, isolating Ruth more," she said.

She told the inquest she had been informed her daughter was only allowed 20 minutes outside a day, which she found "hard to believe" as "even prisoners get one hour".

It previously heard Ruth was being cared for by a member of staff on his first shift, who was subsequently found to have false papers.

The inquest, at Buckinghamshire Coroner's Court in Beaconsfield, is expected to last for about two weeks.