Issy Phipps: Why didn’t doctors tell me my daughter was suicidal?

The mother of a teenager who told a doctor that she planned to kill herself before taking her own life has questioned why doctors did not tell her.

Issy Phipps, 17, was student at Hartpury College in Gloucester. She died at her home in Cookham, Berkshire, in April 2023.

Despite telling a GP her plans the day before, and speaking to a mental health nurse, no medical professional contacted her next of kin and a referral was never followed through.

“I can’t understand why they wouldn’t ring next of kin to make her safe,” said her mother Sarah Renton.

Issy was a talented singer and had played rugby all her life for Berkshire, Maidenhead and Reading. She had also recently won gold as part of the England Under 18s touch rugby squad.

But she also suffered from depression and had been prescribed an antidepressant drug when she was 16.

She was selected for a place at a rugby academy run through Hartpury College where she boarded, and was doing well.

But she was still suffering with her mental health, so a doctor in Gloucester put her on a new antidepressant drug, which has been claimed to cause suicidal thoughts.

Her parents were not informed.