Call to end NHS Priory deal after deaths

THE mother of a teenager who died as a result of neglect in a Priory clinic has called for the NHS to scrap its multimillion pound contracts with the private firm.

The Priory is the UK’s largest mental health provider and has treated public figures including Amy Winehouse, Paul Gascoigne and Kate Moss.

Tania el-Keria yesterday called for NHS contracts to be cancelled after a jury ruled her daughter, Amy, 14, died in a case of neglect. The Priory has been heavily criticised in inquests into at least 10 patients’ deaths since 2012.

Amy died in the group’s clinic in Ticehurst, East Sussex, in a deliberate act contributed to by neglect, staff shortages and inadequate training, jury ruled at an inquest in June.

The teenager, who suffered from a range of mental health issues, was found dead in her room in August 2012 hours after she told staff she wished to kill herself.

Ms el-Keria, London, told “They shouldn’t be taking on these patients. The contract needs to be cancelled – they are just not caring for people. Everyone said, ‘In there at least she’s going to get help’, but she didn’t get anything at all.”

The Priory, which is owned by a private US equity fund and has received more than £450million of public funds, treats thousands of NHS patients every year in its 300 facilities. The Care Quality 52, of Feltham, a west Commission (CQC) criticised its Roehampton clinic in south-west London last month for having wards that made it difficult for staff to observe patients at high-risk of self-harm, and having a “high number of incidents” involving ligatures.

Luciana Berger, president of the Labour Campaign for Mental Health, said: “These findings are shocking. It is a scandal that almost half a billion pounds of public money is being spent on services delivered by an organisation that is failing some of the most vulnerable people.”

Dr Sylvia Tang, Consultant Psychiatrist and Priory Group Medical Director, said 80 per cent of Priory hospitals are rated as “good”, “outstanding” or “fully compliant” by the CQC.