Victoria fell through the cracks in the system
FATHER Nigel Halliday said his family has paid the ultimate price because of the lack of appropriate care provided by the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust for his teenage daughter.
In a statement on behalf of the family, he said: “As a family we feel that Vicky was very badly let down and failed by the Mental Health Service, which was meant to protect her.
“We have paid the ultimate price for the hospital’s ‘lack of appropriate care’.”
He thanked the coroner for conducting a full and thorough inquiry into the tragic death of his daughter during a four day inquest at Leicester Town Hall.
Mr Halliday said he was devastated to learn there were a number of missed opportunities which affected the quality of care that was provided to his daughter.
During the course of the inquiry it became apparent that the communication between the inpatient care and care in the community was inadequate and Vicky fell through the cracks. It also became clear that changes in her condition were repeatedly dismissed and inadequately explored.
He added: “We hope that lessons will be learned and steps will be taken to prevent this happening to anyone else.
“We did, however, feel very supported by the police missing persons team on numerous occasions. We thank them for their compassion and professionalism.
“We would not have got the answers that we needed without the help of our solicitor Ms Mehmooda Duke of Moosa – Duke Solicitors and her legal team.”
The Trust has pledged to improve how it caters for people suffering from complex personality disorders.
There are between 30 to 40 patients in that category and a new system is set to be in place some time next year.
Satheesh Kumar, medical director for Leicestershire Part- nership NHS Trust (LPT), said: “First and foremost we want to extend our deepest sympathy once again to Victoria’s family for their loss.
“We would like to extend any support the Trust can offer to support the family through this difficult period.
“The wellbeing and safety of people in our care is paramount and we carried out an investigation around the circumstances of Victoria’s death to see what we could learn and improve to reduce the likelihood of further tragedies.
“We shared our conclusions with Victoria family. While acknowledging that we cannot do anything to reverse what happened, we are committed to working with the family, if they would welcome the opportunity, to be involved in making changes to our support system so we improve care for people like Victoria.
“Supporting people with very complex needs can be extreme- ly challenging for families and professionals. We have been working hard with commissioners and other agencies to improve the care of people with personality disorder in addition to undertaking improvements in our services following our investigation.
“This work includes developing a pathway for people with personality disorder to make their care more integrated and safer, improving the access to psychological therapies, improving the way we share information between inpatient, crisis team and community mental health teams using an electronic patient record system.
“We take the coroner’s comments very seriously and will not leave any stone unturned in addressing gaps or weakness in the system.
“We are committed to working with families in improving our ability to respond to and support families of people with complex needs like Victoria.”