Ward understaffed when teenager left alone - inquest

Ruth Szymankiewicz "was and still is deeply loved", her parents said on Monday

More than half of a mental health ward's staff were absent on the day a teenager who should have been under constant supervision was left alone, an inquest heard.

Ruth Szymankiewicz was being treated at Huntercombe Hospital, in Berkshire, when she was able to shut herself in her bedroom for 15 minutes on 12 February 2022.

The member of staff responsible for watching the 14-year-old left her alone as she sat in the ward's lounge.

She went to her room, self-harmed and was found later. She died at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford two days later.

The staff member, known as Ebo Acheampong, had used false identity documents, was hired under a false name and had never worked in a hospital before.

Ellesha Brannigan, who was a clinical team leader on Ruth's Thames ward, said Mr Acheampong had been working on another ward, but was asked to join it because staff were so stretched.

"We were severely short-staffed - we were missing at least half of our staff on this day," Ms Brannigan said, adding they "really struggled" to cover the whole ward.

"We needed the ward below us to send staff to us for us to be able to take breaks - breaks wouldn't have been possible otherwise," she said.

She said inadequate staffing levels were a problem "for a long time".

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

The hospital, near Maidenhead, has since closed

A jury at Buckinghamshire Coroner's Court in Beaconsfield was shown CCTV footage of the moment Mr Acheampong left Ruth unsupervised.

She had been put on a "level three" observation plan after earlier incidents of self-harm and had to be kept within eyesight at all times.

"Ruth is very aware that she is being left on her own," coroner Ian Wade KC told the inquest.

"Whichever way one looks at it, there has been an egregious breach of level three observation."

The inadequate staffing levels on Thames ward were flagged to management that night by both Ms Brannigan and a colleague, the inquest heard.

Mr Acheampong never returned to work at the hospital following the incident and fled the UK for Ghana.

The inquest continues.