Goodmayes Hospital: Mother warned of ward fatalities, court told

Duncan Atkinson KC for the prosecution told the jury there were many missed opportunities to take steps to prevent what happened to her.

He detailed 18 incidents where Alice had been able to get hold of bin liners to harm herself, prior to the one that killed her.

The jury heard that these incidents were often not recorded in the hospital incident log called Datix and were inconsistently recorded in the observations log called RiO.

Mr Atkinson said that this meant when professionals were making decisions about Alice’s care, they did not have a complete picture of her condition.

It also meant that despite Alice’s numerous attempts to harm herself using bin liners, they were not entirely removed from the unit.

The jury was told that ward manager Benjamin Aninakwa had said he had asked staff to remove plastic bin bags from the ward, but that was overruled by senior management.

But Mr Atkinson KC told the court that no evidence has been found to back this up.

The trial continues.