NHS Trust apologises after vulnerable woman dies

A hospital trust has apologised after a vulnerable woman admitted to a mental health unit took her own life.

Emily Caldicott, 25, was admitted to hospital in Worcester on 19 March 2020 after an overdose and was found unresponsive in her room two days later.

Worcestershire's coroner raised concerns that staff had allowed her to refuse anxiety medication.

Senior coroner for Worcestershire, David Reid, said in a prevention of future deaths report that action must be taken at the trust to prevent similar occurrences.

He said staff had "failed to carry out an adequate assessment of Emily's capacity to make a decision" when she refused medication to reduce her "extreme anxiety and distress" while she was a patient at Newtown Hospital.

An inquest jury found that, if the medication had been administered, it was likely that her anxiety and distress would have been relieved and that her death would probably have been prevented.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust accepted the findings and has implemented training.

A spokesperson for the trust said: "The trust fully accepts the outcome of the inquest and apologises unreservedly to Emily's family for the failings in care around the time of her death."

The trust added that it was taking action on the points raised in the inquest and said it would be: "unrelenting in our efforts to address all the issues raised in relation to Emily's death.”