Paul Hanton
18 Jan 2018 · Coroner Penelope Schofield · West Sussex
This report repeats 1 earlier warning. See the linked reports.
The coroner's concerns
1. lack of clear information during 999 call
“Need for clear information to be given by hospital staff when making the 999 call to report a patient has gone AWOL in order to proactively answer the known risk questions and maximise the opportunity for police to take timely action to trace the patient within the golden hour”
2. inaccessible CCTV for police
“Langley Green to ensure that hospital CCTV is accessible at all times for police viewing”
3. outdated AWOL policy
“Langley Green to consid it amendment of current AWOL policy”
4. inadequate risk assessment endorsement
“Police to ensure the initial risk assessment is clearly endorsed in the CAD and timely actions are undertaken both locally and appropriate referrals are made to other Forces”
5. lack of joint policy with Adult Safeguarding Board
“Police to consider joint policy with Adult Safeguarding Board”
6. unequal police response to informal patients
“Police to consider equal response to informal as well as sectioned patients if guided by clinical staff of high risk”
Linked reports
Closely relatedConfidence 0.90 · high
Earlier report
“concern was raised by the family with regard to the length of time taken before Mr [name redacted] could be declared missing and the police informed.”
This report
“Need for clear information to be given by hospital staff when making the 999 call to report a patient has gone AWOL”
Responses
2018-0021-Response-by-Sussex-Partnership-NHS-Trust.pdf ↗· Sussex Partnership NHS Trust
2018-0021-Response-by-Sussex-Police.pdf ↗· Sussex Police
Stated action · September 2017
“new call handling guidance within the force missing person policy was published in September 2017 and outlines how the risk level must be recorded clearly within the CAD (incident log)”