A 42-YEAR-OLD woman was found hanged within the emergency department at the Royal Blackburn Hospital yesterday.

The Burnley woman’s body was found in a side room, shortly before 1am.

The incident has been probed by police, who said the death was not suspicious, and a file has now been prepared for the coroner’s office.

MORE TOP STORIES:

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust (ELHT), which runs the hospital, declined to say whether the woman was considered a suicide risk when she arrived at the department, or whether she had any known psychiatric problems.

Russ McLean, chairman of the Pennine Lancashire Patient Voices Group, said: “This is deeply shocking and first and foremost my thoughts are with this woman’s family and friends.

“Obviously we don’t know the specific circumstances yet, but there could be some serious questions for the trust to answer.

“You wonder how this can this happen in a busy A&E department. And if they were a patient with psychiatric issues then why wasn’t she being monitored?”

Dr Ian Stanley, acting medical director at ELHT, said: “Our sympathies are with the patient’s family at this difficult time. This tragic incident is presently the subject of an initial police investigation and the trust will make no further comment at this time.”

Dr Peter Byrne, a spokesman for the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said emergency departments have policies in place to prevent self-harm and suicide, such as risk assessments of the physical environment to reduce potential ‘ligature points’.

He said: “If a patient comes in and expresses a desire to self-harm or commit suicide, then there are generally two levels of observation that could be used.

“In the first, the patient will be given a named nurse, but that staff member may well be tasked with other jobs as well. But those most at risk will have eye-level observation, where a nurse won’t let them out of their line of sight.

“But what’s really difficult, and where the nightmare scenario is, is where there’s no evidence that the patient is at risk of self harm.”

He said patients expressing a wish to self harm, or deemed to be at risk, should generally be given a mental health assessment within one hour.

He added: “There’s an enormous tragedy here because the family will be saying their loved one was in a place of safety and yet this still happened.

“Everyone in the department will feel terrible about it.”

ELHT has spent the past six months reviewing its provision of mental health crisis care within its emergency department and Urgent Care Centres, after concerns were raised during an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.

The regulator said last year: “This (review) must include working more effectively with the mental health liaison team and crisis team to reduce delays for patients who require assessment and/or admission to a mental health bed.”

The trust has declined to say what time the patient arrived at the department, so it is not known if there were any delays in her care.

Lancashire Constabulary said in a statement: “Police were called at around 1am on Tuesday to a report that a 42-year-old woman had been found hanging in a room inside the A&E department at the Royal Blackburn Hospital.

“Sadly she was pronounced dead the scene. The death is not being treated as suspicious and a file has been prepared for Her Majesty’s Coroner.”