Mental health patient dies in corridor

By Liz Lockhart

Peter Thompson, 41, was left by the staff of a mental health unit slumped on the floor in a corridor an inquest heard.

He died in the early hours of April 4^th last year from a fatal combination of alcohol and anti-psychotic drugs. He was about four times the drink drive limit.

Nurses at the unit decided to leave the heavily intoxicated drug addict to sleep it off a coroner was told.

Expert Dr. Alan Fletcher told an inquest that Mr Thompson would have lived if he had been taken to an Accident and Emergency department.

A report in the Manchester Evening Post says that the inquest jury was told how staff ‘kept an eye’ on Mr. Thompson, but did not try to wake him up between around 8.30pm and 6am the next day he was found dead at around 6.15am.

Thompson was a voluntary inpatient at Edale House. He was a jobless father with a history of alcohol and drug problems and had been stopped from entering his ward the previous evening due to his intoxication.

He eventually fell asleep in the corridor and staff at the unit are said to have checked on him a numer of times in the night, the Manchester inquest heard.

Steve Soobhug, the night manager, earlier said that leaving him to sleep outside was ‘the appropriate method of handling the situation at the time.'

This is just the latest story of it's kind to hit the headlines and has sparked us to dig deeper and compile a report on the state of mental health care in UK today - watch this space.