A children’s mental health ward was missing at least half of its staff on the day a suicidal teenage girl was left unsupervised by an inexperienced agency care worker, an inquest has heard.
Ruth Szymankiewicz was being treated for an eating disorder at Huntercombe Hospital in Berkshire and had been placed under strict one-to-one observation when on February 12 2022 she was able to shut herself in her bedroom alone for 15 minutes.
