Number who took own life after A&E visit revealed

One in five of the 1,540 people who attended A&E in the three months prior to taking their own lives died within two days of leaving hospital, new figures show.

More than a quarter (30 per cent) of the 5,826 people who died by suicide between 2011 and 2017 in Scotland went to A&E in the three months before their death.

Of these 1,540 people, more than a third (36 per cent) or 560 died within a week of leaving A&E, according to the latest Scottish national statistics on suicide deaths.

A total of 290 people – just under one in five (19 per cent) – died within two days of leaving A&E and 270 people (18 per cent) died later that week.

The study suggested general health services were filling a gap between psychiatric need and supply, but stressed the difficulty of accurately predicting suicide risk.

Nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) of those who died by suicide in the five-year period either attended hospital, had contact with drug services or were prescribed a mental health drug in the community in the year before their deaths.

Most had no contact with specialised mental health services in the 12 months before they died, but 24 per cent were offered a psychiatric outpatient appointment and 13 per cent had been discharged from psychiatric inpatient care.

The report states: “These findings might raise concerns about a possible shortfall between the mental health needs of high risk individuals and the supply of services that meet those needs.”