An NHS trust has pleaded guilty to failing to provide safe care after a 16-year-old girl left a hospital ward and took her own life.
Ellame Ford-Dunn was being treated on the Bluefin children’s ward at Worthing Hospital, run by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust, when she walked out and died by suicide in March 2022.
The Care Quality Commission brought the prosecution, and the trust admitted its failings. It said the ward was not designed for patients with severe mental health needs but Ellame had been admitted because of a shortage of specialist beds.
Ellame’s mother, Nancy Ford-Dunn, said her daughter “deserved to be kept safe and get well” and described the family’s life since her death as “surviving, not living.”
The trust will be sentenced on 26 November. The case has renewed concerns about the shortage of child mental health beds and safety standards in NHS care.
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