The chief executive and chair of NHS Forth Valley have apologised to the families of two young people who took their own lives while in Polmont Young Offenders Institution for “failures relating to health care services”.
Their comments followed the recent determination of a Fatal Accident Inquiry into the deaths of Katie Allan (21) and William Brown (16), also known as William Lindsay, at Polmont Young Offenders Institution in 2018.
Sheriff Simon Collins’ found that both deaths could have been avoided had it not been for a “catalogue of failures” by the Scottish Prison Service and healthcare services.
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His determination made clear that there were reasonable precautions by which both deaths might realistically have been avoided and that there were systemic failures contributing to the deaths.
Speaking at a meeting of NHS Forth Valley Board on Tuesday, chair Neena Mahal said: “I would like to extend my heartfelt condolences to the families of Katie and William and apologise for the failure that related to the healthcare services that were highlighted in the recent report.”
“A number of issues were highlighted within that report – a number of recommendations have been made since these very sad events and we’ve still got homework to do to make changes and improve the healthcare services that we provide the prison population in Forth Valley.”
Chief executive Ross McGuffie added his apologies and sincere condolences, telling the meeting that a review of mental health services provided in Polmont YOI, published in May 2019, had made 21 recommendations for immediate action.
Twenty of these have now been implemented, he said, with one – around information sharing protocols – still to be formally signed off.
The recommendations covered a range of actions including an overview of supervision, staff training, timing of mental health assessments for those deemed to be at high risk and improving multi-agency working.
Work is now underway to implement the FOI recommendations.
Professor McGuffie said: “There has been an awful lot of work done in the last six years but we are on that continuous improvement journey across all three prisons in the area,” he said.
Ms Mahal told the board: “I’m sure you’ll want to join me in making sure that these tragic events never happen again.”
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