WElFArE ChECKs

KMPT was told to make improvements following three deaths last year.

Coroners used Regulation 28 powers to make recommendations after the suicides of architect Joanna Bowring, 32, and a 54-yearold woman from Canterbury, as well as the death of a Dover man.

Miss Bowring was hit by a train at Boxley last June after being denied in-patient care at Medway Maritime Hospital.

A coroner voiced concerns her parents, who were caring for her, were not adequately involved in her treatment or informed of ‘red flags’ to look out for, and also said a care plan should always be given to a patient leaving hospital.

Another woman hanged herself last April after being taken to St Martin’s Hospital, Canterbury under the Mental Health Act, following an attempted suicide.

She was discharged and contacted by KMPT’s Crisis team the following day, which reported she was suicidal.

Efforts were made to contact her again, but her family weren’t informed. She was found dead at home by police more than 24 hours later.

An inquest found the protocol for when to request a welfare check was not clear and even after staff were educated, a shift co-ordinator remained unclear on policy.

Schizophrenic Karl Williams, 49, from Dover, died in September after stepping in front of a lorry. He discharged himself from William Harvey Hospital, Ashford, after cutting his wrists. He had been waiting for two hours and there was no on-duty psychiatric specialist present.

A coroner advised roundthe-clock psychiatric care is made available at the hospital’s A&E department.