Suicide risk teacher left alone to hang herself at hospital three months after report said it 'wasn't safe place for vulnerable people'

• Jessica Philpott, 38, had made two apparent attempts to hang herself on the ward on the night she was found but was still allowed out unsupervised
• Staff allegedly told a patient that they thought she was attention-seeking and hadn’t actually wanted to kill herself

Tragic: Teacher Jessica Philpott, 38, was found hanging in the grounds of a psychiatric hospital three months after inspectors expressed 'major concerns' that it was not safe for vulnerable people

A teacher with a long history of suicide attempts was found hanging in the grounds of a psychiatric hospital three months after inspectors expressed ‘major concerns’ that it was not safe for vulnerable people.
Jessica Philpott, 38, had made two apparent attempts to hang herself on the ward on the night she was found but was still allowed out unsupervised, an inquest heard yesterday.
A community nurse who had been closely involved in Miss Philpott’s care had also warned staff just hours earlier that she was suicidal and had sounded ‘final’ during a conversation.
The same day Miss Philpott told staff and patients at the hospital that she wanted to kill herself.
Staff allegedly told a patient that they thought she was attention-seeking and hadn’t actually wanted to kill herself.
A Care Quality Commission report on Mill View Hospital in Hove, East Sussex, in November 2011 had identified that ‘vulnerable people have unaccompanied access to environments where ligature points exist, placing them at risk of harm’.
Although the CQC ordered the hospital to carry out ‘compliance action’, Miss Philpott managed to get hold of a television cable and shoelace and walk into an unlit  garden in the hospital’s grounds where she was found on February 13 this year.
Yesterday, Brighton coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley asked Mill View nurse Anthony Jones: ‘What do you think about an unlit garden accessible to patients with a ligature point area that can’t be seen?’
He replied: ‘With hindsight, that needed addressing. It has been.’
The inquest in Brighton heard that Mill View operated a 72-hour discharge policy in accordance with national guidelines set by NICE.
Miss Philpott, of Brighton, was admitted for three days and was being observed every 15 minutes, but was found hanging the day before she was due to be discharged.
Patients, friends and staff told the inquest that Miss Philpott was unhappy to leave the hospital, but had also attempted to discharge herself.
Miss Philpott, a former head of year who had worked at Oakmeeds Community College in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, had suffered from emotionally unstable personality disorder since she was 13.
She had a history of regular self-harm and attempted suicide and had been detained by police a number of times for her own safety.
She had mostly been cared for by community mental health workers, but her condition escalated from 2009 onwards and she was eventually admitted to Mill View.

Worrying: A report on Mill View Hospital, pictured, had identified that 'vulnerable people have unaccompanied access to environments where ligature points exist, placing them at risk of harm'

Jude Godden, a community mental health nurse who had been involved in her care, said he had spoken to her shortly before her death and had been concerned by the ‘finality’ of what she said.
He said: ‘I phoned the ward straight away to say it was very final, the way she talked about things.
‘I was worried it was a form of final planning. My worry was she was planning to do something when she went home.’
The inquest heard that Miss Philpott’s friend Natalie Fforde had seen her the day before she was found and she was ‘clearly suicidal’.
Miss Fforde said in a written statement that Miss Philpott had told her she was due to be discharged, but ‘I kept reassuring her that the nurses wouldn’t let her out’.
The inquest continues.