Essex fall victim's family fear same could happen again

Doris Smith, pictured with her son Paul, worked in social services in London before moving to Essex

A man whose mother died after a fall in a mental health unit has warned the same could happen to another patient unless there are "massive changes".

Doris Smith died at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, five days after the fall in October 2020.

A coroner said it could have been avoided if she was given increased monitoring and observation.

The Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust said improved measures had since been put in place.

Paul Rucklidge-Smith said: "You just hope that someone else is not going to go through it, but they are and they will until there are massive changes."

Doris Smith, pictured with Anna and Paul Rucklidge-Smith, died five days after the fall at Broomfield Hospital

Mrs Smith worked in social services for Hackney Council in east London but moved to Clacton on the Essex coast in 2010 to be near her sister and best friend.

However, both died in the following three years and her son said she soon displayed signs of dementia.

She was eventually admitted to the Ruby Ward, part of the Crystal Centre on the Broomfield Hospital site.

"It was almost a relief because we thought she was safe," Mr Rucklidge-Smith said.

Paul Rucklidge-Smith said he was hopeful an ongoing independent inquiry would bring answers, but he wanted a public inquiry with statutory powers

She suffered a head injury in the fall on 9 October, diagnosed as a bleed on the brain, and died on 14 October.

A five-day jury inquest was held at the coroner's court in Chelmsford in January this year.

A subsequent Prevention of Future Deaths Report written by coroner Sonia Hayes highlighted that a risk assessment for her should have been completed within 24 hours of her admission - but in fact took 12 days.

She said the fall could have been avoided if she was "observed and monitored as she should have been".

Mr Rucklidge-Smith said: "There are lots of meetings planned, lots of reviews of processes, but hardly anything has actually changed, until now."

He said he was hopeful the government would soon announce that an ongoing independent inquiry, examining roughly 2,000 deaths of patients at the trust over a 20-year period, would be turned into a public inquiry and granted stronger statutory powers.

'Improvement'

The trust said it had invested £40m into improvements for inpatient and community services in recent years.

It said its measures to prevent and manage falls included implementing Oxevision technology, mandatory training for staff on preventing falls and a dedicated group that meets regularly to review falls across the trust.

"Our thoughts and condolences remain with Doris's loved ones," a spokesman said.

"We are committed to providing the best patient care and ensuring any learning is embedded across our organisation to help us drive forward improvement."