300k fine for the Priory over suicide of a teenage girl

The Priory Group, a provider of mental health care facilities in the UK, has been fined £300,000 after 14-year-old Amy El-Keria was found hanged in her room whilst under their care in 2012.

An inquest held in 2016 discovered that had the teenager received the correct care, her death may not have happened.

Amy was admitted to the hospital in August 2012. She was considered at high-risk after a number of recent suicide attempts.

Despite this being known by the hospital, she was left unsupervised, which allowed her to carry out another suicide attempt.

On 12 November, Amy was found hanged with a scarf around her neck. She was taken to a hospital in Hastings, but died the following day.

During the inquest, it was found that the staff looking after Amy had not received sufficient training in resuscitation and did not call an ambulance in a reasonable amount of time.

The jury determined that although Amy died of consequences of a deliberate act, neglectful care and inadequate staffing levels at this particular Priory hospital contributed to her death.

A Chartered Legal Executive Lawyer in the Medical Negligence team at Ashtons Legal, comments: “This is a devastating scenario which highlights the need for mental issues to be treated more seriously and for actions to me made far sooner. We are seeing increasing numbers of cases of similar description where we are being constantly faced with examples of a failing system where death could have been avoided. I hope that the knowledge which is gained from this case goes on to bring about much needed change to assist in the avoidance of future deaths caused by mental health services.”