Sally Mays: NHS apology after woman refused hospital admission

An NHS trust has apologised "unreservedly" at an inquest into the death of a vulnerable woman who died after being refused hospital admission.

Sally Mays, 22, who had mental health issues, died at home in Hull in 2014.

A coroner ruled information withheld from the original 2015 inquest did not represent a further missed opportunity to prevent her death.

Ms Mays' parents described the apology as "hollow", saying they had suffered "endless additional agony".

The supermarket worker, who had long-standing psychiatric issues, was turned away by the Humber NHS Foundation Trust crisis team despite a "grave concern of self-harm", the inquest had heard.

Hours before her death on 25 July 2014, a nurse seeking urgent admission for Ms Mays told a consultant doctor she was upset about the 22-year-old's assessment and treatment by the crisis team in a "casual" conversation, which was never documented and only emerged after the original inquest in October 2015.

Details of the conversation, in a car park between community psychiatry nurse Laura Elliot and consultant psychiatrist Dr Kwame Fofie, emerged when retired nurse Debbie Barratt had learned of it and made a note of the information.

Following the new three-day inquest in Hull, Senior Coroner Professor Paul Marks said the conversation was "neither clinical nor an attempt to escalate (Sally's) care".

But, he said: "The trust has not covered itself in glory with regard to its dealings with the family and the disclosing of documents."

Michael Rawlinson, representing the Humber NHS Foundation Trust, said the trust "apologised unreservedly" for the information not emerging earlier, and that a second inquest had been required.

Parents Angela and Andy Mays said it had taken eight years and "a long and tortuous" legal process to "know the whole facts and truth" about the circumstances of their daughter's death.

Mrs Mays said: "I think it's far too little, far too late, and we would have appreciated it if they would have simply helped us to get the facts regarding Sally's death at the time, as they should have done."

The Mays said hearing details of their daughter's death a second time had been "horrific" and the family would "never have closure".

Mrs Mays added: "I hope there is some learning from this. I hope the trust alone, for this area, learns to deal with bereaved families in a humane and conscionable way, to be open and honest, to abide by the duty of candour and to do the right thing."

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