Tragedy after hospital tells suicidal father carrying noose: Go away and ring NHS24

Published on Friday 15 July 2011 18:31

THE death of a sex-abuse victim who killed himself weeks after being turned away from hospital has prompted major reforms by health chiefs.

Daniel Day climbed over a gate at Aberdeen's Royal Cornhill Hospital last November, begging to be taken in after years of fighting for psychological treatment.

He had tried to take his own life three previous times and drank up to a litre of vodka a day. But hospital bosses told Mr Day to leave and call the out-of-hours NHS 24 service instead.

Just weeks later, on 9 January, the 28-year-old killed himself, saying he could not face life without his eight-year-old daughter who had moved away with her mother.

Now a critical incident review by NHS Grampian has found changes to record-keeping and training are necessary to potentially prevent future tragedies. Although the advice to call NHS 24 will remain, staff will be told to give someone seeking help immediate access to a phone or contact the helpline on their behalf.

Mr Day's mother, Julie Brown, said more could have been done to prevent "the blackness which was engulfing him".

She said: "NHS Grampian seemed worried that we are going to sue them, but we don't want money or heads to roll - we just want to see changes which will stop this from happening again.

"They know there are lessons to be learned. Now we are going to see whether they have the appetite to do so.

"The problem for Daniel was that he clearly did not feel that he was worth loving, and the one person he felt would give him unconditional love was his daughter. Taking that away was the end of everything for him."

His sister, Naomi, 25, added: "Daniel was asking for help for 10 years but nobody seemed to know who should be helping him."

NHS Grampian said they were committed to seeing the changes brought in following the review.

A spokeswoman said: "We would first of all like to express our condolences to Mr Day's family on their loss.

"We are grateful to Mr Day's relatives for their valuable input to the critical incident review. We have shared all the findings with them and we are committed to implementing the recommendations in full."

The internal review found no record had been made of Mr Day's 3am plea for help at the hospital on 5 November. That prompted a recommendation that out-of-hours care and response needed to be improved.

Records will be kept of any patients seeking admission during the evening or night so GPs can be informed.

All frontline staff who could be involved in assessing patients at possible risk of suicide, or who have suffered from sexual trauma, are to be given extra training.

Another review will be carried out by the NHS Grampian board and the Mental Welfare Commission about how information can be shared effectively between the health service and other agencies, such as the police.

Carolyn Roberts, head of policy and campaigns at mental health charity SAMH, told The Scotsman last night that services across Scotland vary.

She said: "Suicide devastates communities, and we all have a role to play in preventing it.

"Health boards, in particular, must be ready to recognise the signs that someone needs help, and to intervene quickly and effectively. We hope that the review by NHS Grampian and the efforts of Daniel Day's family will prevent anyone else from being so badly failed by their health professionals."

SAMH said the social and economic cost of mental health problems in Scotland has now reached 10.7 billion per year, up from 8.6bn in 2004/05.

Although the suicide rate in Scotland is falling, at more than 14 per 100,000, it is still the highest in the UK and the second highest in Europe after Finland.

The University of Manchester's National Confidential Inquiry Into Suicide found that 28 per cent of suicides in Scotland were by current or recent patients, about 233 people per year, on average.

The Samaritans provide confidential support for those experiencing distress or despair on 08457 909090.