Hospitals face flood of claims after suicide case
High Court awards patient's daughter £10,000 payout
London: The Health Service faces a flood of potential lawsuits under the Human Rights Act after a secure mental hospital was ruled liable for one of its suicidal patients killing herself.
Carol Savage, 50, jumped under a train four years ago. Her daughter Anna, 23, has won a £10,000 (Dh56,000) payout and the NHS also faces a bill for hundreds of thousands of pounds in costs.
The High Court ruled that Mrs Savage's ‘right to life' had been breached by Runwell Hospital, in Essex. It was the first such case to come before an English court and could pave the way for hundreds of similar claims.
The ruling places a greater obligation on NHS Trusts to safeguard the lives of vulnerable patients. More than 1,800 such patients committed suicide between 1997 and 2006.
Justice Mackay awarded Miss Savage £10,000 in ‘just satisfaction' against the South Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
Mrs Savage of Rayleigh, Essex, had a history of running away from the hospital. The judge said he had ‘no doubt she presented a real and immediate risk' of absconding from the ward and of committing suicide in the days before her death on July 5, 2004.
She had a paranoid mental illness for some time, had made several attempts to run away and had spoken of suicide. An inquest in 2005 heard that staff at Runwell considered Mrs Savage at ‘low risk' of absconding even though she had once been found wandering in traffic trying to kill herself.
He rejected the Trust's plea it did ‘all it reasonably could' to protect Mrs Savage from herself. He added: "All that was required to give her a substantial chance of survival was the imposition of a raised level of observations."
