Patrick Campbell's father blames trust for failing his son

The father of a mental health patient who took his life in the grounds of the Ulster Hospital has blamed a health trust for failing his son.

A coroner at the inquest of Patrick Campbell said the 26-year-old had died by suicide.

She recommended that the trust build a new purpose-built mental health unit.

She also recognised the difficulties of striking the balance between a therapeutic and a restrictive environment.

Mr Campbell, a former student at Queen's University, died after climbing over a fence at the rear of the hospital's mental health unit.

The inquest previously heard that it was almost 25 minutes before medical services arrived.

In reference to the perimeter garden wall, which Patrick had scaled in order to abscond, the coroner acknowledged that where there is an open ward, a balance must be struck in order to provide an environment that is safe but not restrictive.

During the inquest, it emerged that 17 other patients with mental health problems had absconded over the same garden wall.

The wall has since been increased in height following Patrick's death.

Speaking outside the court, Patrick's father, Maurice Campbell, said the South Eastern Health Trust should have acted a lot quicker in implementing the recommendations of improving the mental health unit.

The family say they are taking legal advice about taking a further case.

Patrick's mother Geraldine told the BBC: "My son Patrick will never be back but if it will help prevent other families going through what we have then it will be of some good.

"I think Patrick would have been very sorry at the grief he's caused - he thought by ending his life was better for all of us - but it wasn't. I miss him every day."

In a statement, the trust expressed "its sincere condolences to Mr Campbell's family".

It said it agreed with the coroner's findings "that mental health services strike a balance between creating a positive, therapeutic environment to aid recovery, and implementing measures to keep patients safe".

It said that people "may always be able to find means to leave a general psychiatric ward without the agreement of staff".

The trust added that it had "undertaken a number of therapeutic measures aimed at reducing any patient's potential thoughts of absconding" and that these had produced "encouraging results with a significant reduction in the number of patients who abscond".

"While the trust cannot comment on the particular circumstances surrounding any individual's death, all suicides involving patients who have been receiving care and treatment from the trust are reviewed under the Department of Health's Procedure for the Reporting and Follow Up of Serious Adverse Incidents (October 2013)," it added.

"This process provides a mechanism to effectively share learning in a meaningful way; with a focus on safety and quality; ultimately leading to service improvement for service users.

"We can confirm that a Serious Adverse Incident review has been completed and the lessons learnt and the recommendations made in this case have been implemented.

"The trust concurs with the views of the coroner that a purpose built inpatient mental health unit would benefit the treatment of our patients in an open ward environment."