Alice Figueiredo, 22, took her life while a patient in Goodmayes Hospital in July 2015, reports Sebastian Mann, Local Democracy Reporter
Procedural changes on a London NHS ward where a patient took her life could be “difficult” to implement, a court heard.
Alice Figueiredo, 22, had been admitted to the Hepworth ward in Goodmayes Hospital for psychiatric treatment, where she died on 7th July 2015.
The North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), which oversees healthcare in Barking & Dagenham, Redbridge, Havering and Waltham Forest, denies a charge of corporate manslaughter.
Benjamin Aninakwa, who was ward manager at the time of her death, has also pleaded not guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence.
During her six months in the acute psychiatric ward, Alice had attempted to harm herself using plastic items on 18 separate occasions. The Old Bailey had previously heard that many incidents were not logged on the NHS’ dedicated tracking software, Datix.
Dr Bradley Hillier, a consultant psychiatrist, was asked by Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuting, if it would have been “reasonable” for Aninakwa to remove the plastic items from the ward in February, after the first incident.
He said it would have, but there was “tension” between making changes to immediately manage risks and getting those decisions signed off.
Dr Hillier, called to the stand by Aninakwa’s defence barristers, told jurors that changes were not made “not because you don’t want to,” but because there were “so many things” to consider that “competed” for attention.
He added that Datix reports could prove helpful to track what changes were required or “needed prioritising”.
In terms of the incidents involving Alice, Dr Hillier said experts “agreed there was under-reporting in absolute terms”.
NELFT records three types of incidents on Datix: hazards, which involve a likelihood of harm; near-misses; and serious incidents.
The consultant psychiatrist said there was a “grey area” as to what exactly constituted self-harm, but there were “certainly incidents on Alice’s record that should have been reported and weren’t”.
He added there had been “challenges” across the NHS with the consistency of incident reporting and there was no “easy solution”. It has improved in the decade since Alice’s death, he said, but work was still ongoing.
The trial continues.
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