Hospital ward ‘missing half its staff’ when girl, 14, was able to kill herself

A children’s mental health ward was missing at least half its staff on the day a suicidal teenage girl was able to kill herself while left unsupervised by an agency worker, an inquest has heard.

Ruth Szymankiewicz, 14, had been placed under strict one-to-one observation at Huntercombe Hospital in Berkshire, where she was being treated for an eating disorder.

But she was able to self-harm after shutting herself in her bedroom on the hospital’s Thames ward for 15 minutes on February 12, 2022, the hearing was told.

Ruth died two days later at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, Buckinghamshire Coroner’s Court in Beaconsfield has heard.

It later emerged the worker responsible for watching Ruth – a man then known as Ebo Acheampong – had been using false identity documents and was hired under a false name.

The inquest also heard today that Mr Acheampong had never worked in a hospital environment prior to coming to Huntercombe Hospital on February 12 for his first shift.

Ellesha Brannigan, who worked as a clinical team leader on Thames ward, told the inquest that Mr Acheampong was originally working on a different ward but was asked to join the psychiatric intensive care unit because they were so short-staffed nurses could not go on breaks.

‘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.’

Jurors were shown CCTV footage of the moment Mr Acheampong left Ruth unsupervised while she sat in the ward’s lounge watching TV, enabling her to slip away.

She had been placed on the ‘level three observation’ plan following earlier incidents of self-harm – meaning she had to be kept within eyesight at all times.

In the footage, Mr Acheampong can be seen leaving the room repeatedly – at first only for seconds at a time, then for two minutes – prompting the teenager to walk up to the door and look into the lobby, seemingly waiting for the opportunity to leave the room.

‘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.’

New support care workers joining Huntercombe were required to complete an induction process with a chief nurse, who would then need to sign a checklist or the shift would have to be cancelled, Tim Moloney KC, representing the family, told the hearing.

This was not done for Mr Acheampong, with Ms Brannigan explaining: ‘We didn’t have the staff to do the induction for him.’

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

Ms Brannigan told the inquest staffing levels at Huntercombe Hospital – also known as Taplow Manor – had been an issue ‘for a long time’.

‘Myself and other staff advocated for our ward with senior management but no staffing changes were made,’ she told the jury.

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

The inquest continues.

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