{"id":228523,"date":"2025-10-27T17:11:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T17:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/228523\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T17:11:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T17:11:06","slug":"nhs-trust-pleads-guilty-after-teenage-girl-absconded-from-24-hour-care-and-killed-herself-nhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/228523\/","title":{"rendered":"NHS trust pleads guilty after teenage girl absconded from 24-hour care and killed herself | NHS"},"content":{"rendered":"

An NHS<\/a> trust has pleaded guilty to failures over the avoidable death of a teenage girl who killed herself after absconding from 24-hour supervision under its care.<\/p>\n

Ellame Ford-Dunn, 16, who suffered with severe mental health problems, died on 20 March 2022, minutes after leaving the Bluefin acute children\u2019s ward in Worthing hospital, part of University hospitals Sussex NHS trust (UHSussex).<\/p>\n

The supervising agency nurse watched Ellame leave the ward, but did not follow her because she said she had been instructed not to leave the ward if a patient absconded, Brighton magistrates court was told.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the trust pleaded guilty to a failure to provide safe care and treatment resulting in avoidable harm. In mitigation it said the acute ward was not equipped to deal with vulnerable mental health patients, but the trust had accepted Ellame because of a \u201cgrowing crisis nationally\u201d over the shortage of mental health beds for children and adolescents.<\/p>\n

The prosecution was brought by the hospital regulator, the Care Quality Commission. Its barrister, James Marsland, said the trust had exposed Ellame \u201cto a risk of significant avoidable harm\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said its policy on missing patients \u201cdid not provide any meaningful guidance on what to do when a vulnerable patient is seen to be absconding\u201d. He added the police created confusion among staff and noted that the nurse caring for Ellame was \u201cunder the impression she should not follow her\u201d.<\/p>\n

Marsland said Ellame had a complex diagnosis and was at risk of self-harm and absconding. She tried to abscond from the hospital multiple times in the weeks before her death, Marsland told the court.<\/p>\n

In a victim impact statement, Ellame\u2019s mother, Nancy Ford-Dunn, said: \u201cEllame deserved to be kept safe and get well and have a fulfilling life. Her future has been ripped from her and from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eleanor Sanderson, the counsel for UHSussex, said: \u201cThe trust accepts the core failing was the 2019 missing patient policy. It wasn\u2019t clear about what to do when a patient absconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the policy should have been updated to reflect the reality that a growing number of mental health patients were being cared for on acute children\u2019s ward due to a national shortage of mental health beds.<\/p>\n

Sanderson said: \u201cThe decision to admit Ellame to the Bluefin ward placed the trust in an invidious position. It didn\u2019t have the resources or skill to care for her but the alternative was a refusal to admit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Separately, the trust is under police investigation for possible individual and corporate manslaughter over more than 90 deaths involving alleged negligence and cover-up in general surgery and neurosurgery<\/a>. It is also one of 14 trusts subject to a national inquiry announced last month<\/a>, into failures in maternity services.<\/p>\n

An inquest into Ellame\u2019s death opened last year<\/a>. It was adjourned pending the outcome of the prosecution.<\/p>\n

Ellame\u2019s mother, who is supported by the charity Inquest, told the court: \u201cThe legal process is taking so very very long. We still await the inquest. It delays the grieving process and keeps us trapped in the details. We are surviving not living.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThere is an Ellame-shaped hole in our lives and that absence screams every day.\u201d Ellame had been diagnosed with dyslexia, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and found secondary school challenging, the court heard. Her mother said she loved dancing with her younger sister and swimming in the sea with her younger brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cEllame was a people pleaser who always cared more about other people\u2019s feelings than her own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

UHSussex will be sentenced on 26 November over Ellame\u2019s death. It is expected to be issued a substantial fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An NHS trust has pleaded guilty to failures over the avoidable death of a teenage girl who killed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-228523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}