During her five-month detainment in an acute psychiatric unit at Goodmayes Hospital, Alice Figueiredo, 22, attempted to harm herself on 39 occasions. Alice died on July 7, 2015 after she was able to access a plastic bag in a communal toilet on the Hepworth ward, a jury at the Old Bailey was told. North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), which oversees mental health care across Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Redbridge and Waltham Forest, denies corporate manslaughter and charge of failing to ensure the safety of non-employees.
Benjamin Aninakwa, of St Francis Way in Grays, who was ward manager at the time of Alice’s death, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence and failing to take reasonable care for the health and safety of patients on the ward. Eighteen of Alice’s attempts involved bin bags but incidents were not consistently recorded on the NHS Datix system, which is used by staff to log incidents and risks involving patients, it is alleged. Only one of six incidents in February 2015 were recorded via Datix and not all were logged on the Rio system, which the NHS uses for patient health records, according to the prosecution.
The following month, Alice attempted self-harm or prepared to self-harm 13 separate times but only one incident was recorded via Datix, jurors heard. She had used plastic bags on eight occasions. Duncan Atkinson KC, prosecuting, said: “The reality is that each of them should have been recorded in that way.
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