Mental health ward was missing ‘half its staff’ when teenager fatally self-harmed

A mental health hospital was “severely short-staffed” and missing “at least half” their workers on the day a vulnerable teenager fatally self-harmed, an inquest has heard.

- REBECCA THOMAS

Ruth Szymankiewicz, 14, died on 14 February 2022 after she was left alone at Huntercombe Hospital, near Maidenhead in Berkshire, despite requiring constant one-to-one observation, Buckinghamshire Coroner's Court was told.

Ruth, who had an eating disorder, Tourette syndrome and a tic condition, which had affected her mental health, was left alone for 15 minutes on 12 February, allowing her to make her way to her room, where she self-harmed. She was found and resuscitated before being transferred to John Radcliffe Hospital, but died two days later.

It later emerged that the care worker responsible for watching Ruth at the hospital's psychiatric intensive care unit - a man then known as Ebo Acheampong - had been using false identity documents and was hired under a false name.

Ellesha Brannigan, who worked as a clinical team leader on the ward where Ruth was staying, said they were understaffed on the day the teenager was left alone.