Parents of students who died by suicide call for legal duty of care to be imposed on universities
In the months before Phoebe Grime took her own life, her mother Hilary warned her university that she was struggling.
Phoebe found lockdown isolating, and when her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer it was another blow.
Ms Grime says Phoebe’s teary phone calls home raised red flags, but that she was left in the dark about how bad her daughter got.
“She did have a suicide plan,” Ms Grime told Sky News, “in October 2020 which was six or seven months before she died, and she told the university about her suicide plan, and they didn’t contact me, so I didn’t know anything about that.”
“I think the hardest thing is, 20 hours before Phoebe took her life, she saw the Newcastle University counsellor” Ms Grime added. “And Phoebe in their notes, Newcastle’s own notes, Phoebe said she wished the pain to end and put her hand on her heart.”
The notes show that in that last session, conducted virtually, the counsellor asked Phoebe further probing questions, but she denied that she was feeling suicidal. Her mother said her denial should not have been taken at face value.
Phoebe’s mother Hilary is campaigning to enforce a greater duty of care on universities
“If they had phoned me, as they said they would, I would have been in that car to Newcastle, and I believe Phoebe would be here today with me. It’s a massive, brutal trauma,” Ms Grime said.
Newcastle University, where Phoebe, who was 20, was studying philosophy, said in a statement: “Phoebe is remembered fondly as a talented and popular student. In her 18 months here, our dedicated wellbeing team provided her with ongoing support and counselling.
“The coroner in Phoebe’s inquest could not identify any point where things could have been done differently by the university or by her private counsellor.
“Nonetheless, we continuously seek to improve support services and work with key partners to help any student struggling with their mental health.”
But Phoebe’s mother and other parents of children who took their own lives while in higher education are calling for a statutory, legal duty of care for students, similar to the duty of care employers have for employees.
Oskar Carrick took his own life while a student at Sheffield Hallam University
It would be more comprehensive than the general duty of care, with safeguarding written into law.
The parents, who formed a group called The Lived Experience for Action Right Now (LEARN) Network, started a petition which gained enough signatures to trigger a debate in parliament, with the higher education minister Robert Halfon saying he had asked all universities to sign up to the mental health charter programme by September 2024.
But while he said that he wasn’t closing the door on future legislation, he stopped short of committing to any new laws.
For Maxine Carrick, that’s not enough. She only found out after her son Oskar’s suicide that he had previously tried to take his life.
And though the inquest into his death heard he initially did not want his family to know, a month after the attempt Oskar gave consent to share information with his mum and GP, but it wasn’t applied retrospectively.
“So they didn’t have to tell us about the suicide attempt they just had to tell us about anything after that,” she told Sky News, but added that she felt the family should have been told there were concerns about Oskar, who was 20, in the run up to his death.
Oskar’s mother feels the university should have informed her there were concerns about her son
A spokesperson for Sheffield Hallam University said: “The university community was saddened by the loss of Oskar, and we would like to again offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends.
“The inquest into Oskar’s tragic death did not reference any failings on the part of the university. The coroner also commented that she was content the university was engaging with discussions surrounding consent on a sector-wide national level.
“We take supporting our students’ mental health and wellbeing extremely seriously. In recent years we have significantly increased resources to provide access to a wide range of support services, whilst every student has access to dedicated advisors.”
Universities UK, a body representing 140 universities across the country, told Sky News that they issued new guidance last year to support universities in taking a more proactive approach involving trusted contacts when there are serious concerns about a student.
But bereaved parents say only legal change will make a true difference.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
MP Mike Amesbury has pleaded guilty to assault by beating for punching a man in Cheshire.
The Runcorn and Helsby MP appeared at Chester Magistrates’ Court on Thursday morning where he admitted attacking 45-year-old Paul Fellows in Main Street, Frodsham, Cheshire, in October.
Speaking outside the court, he said the incident was “highly regrettable” and he was “sincerely sorry” to Mr Fellows and his family.
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CCTV footage showed Amesbury, who has been an MP since 2017, punching Mr Fellows on the ground.
Other previously released videos from another angle show Amesbury punching Mr Fellows repeatedly after knocking him to the floor as members of the public intervened.
It was reported to police at 2.48pm on Saturday 26 October.
The court heard how Amesbury told Mr Fellows “you won’t threaten your MP again” after punching him in the head with enough force to knock him to the ground.
The 55-year-old politician is currently an independent MP after he was suspended by Labour at the end of October when the CCTV footage emerged.
He will continue to be suspended so remains as an independent.
Pic: Richard Townshend/UK Parliament/PA
The court heard Mr Fellows recognised Amesbury in the taxi rank in Frodsham town centre at about 2am on 26 October last year.
Both were alone and had been drinking.
Alison Storey, prosecuting, said Mr Fellows approached the MP to remonstrate about a bridge closure in the town and CCTV then shows they spoke for several minutes but there was no aggression or raised voices.
Mr Fellows then started to walk away but Amesbury re-engaged and was heard saying “what” a few times before shouting it.
The victim then put his hands in his pockets and turned towards the taxi queue and when he turned back Amesbury punched him in the head, knocking him to the ground.
He then punched Mr Fellows again, at least five times, Ms Storey said.
She told the court he was then heard saying “you won’t threaten your MP again will you”.
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Amesbury was voluntarily interviewed under caution by Cheshire Police in October and was charged with common assault on 7 November.
At the time, Amesbury said what happened was “deeply regrettable” and he was co-operating with police.
A Labour Party spokesman said: “It is right that Mike Amesbury has taken responsibility for his unacceptable actions.
“He was rightly suspended by the Labour Party following the announcement of the police investigation.
“We cannot comment further whilst legal proceedings are still ongoing.”
Amesbury is set to be sentenced next month. If he is sent to prison or given a suspended sentence he could lose his seat.
A sentence of less than a year, even if it is suspended, would leave him liable to the recall process, which would trigger a by-election if 10% of registered voters in his seat sign a petition calling for it.
A jail term of more than a year would mean he automatically loses his seat.
UK
‘I have nightmares of dead bodies’: Patients dying and undiscovered for hours in hospital corridors
Patients are dying in corridors and going undiscovered for hours while the sick are left to soil themselves, nurses have said, revealing the scale of the corridor crisis inside the UK’s hospitals.
In a “harrowing” report built from the experiences of more than 5,000 NHS nursing staff, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) found almost seven in 10 (66.81%) say they are delivering care in overcrowded or unsuitable places, including converted cupboards, corridors and even car parks, on a daily basis.
Demoralised staff are looking after as many as 40 patients in a single corridor, unable to access oxygen, cardiac monitors, suction and other lifesaving equipment.
Women are miscarrying in corridors, while some nurses report being unable to carry out adequate CPR on patients having heart attacks.
Sara (not her real name) said she was on shift when a doctor told her there was a dying patient who had been waiting in the hospital’s corridor for six hours.
“It took a further two hours to get her into an adequate care space to make her clean and comfortable,” she told Sky News.
“That’s a human being, someone in the last hours of their life in the middle of a corridor with a detoxing patient vomiting and being abusive behind them and a very poorly patient in front of them, who was confused, screaming in pain. It was awful on the family, and it was awful on the patient.”
Dead patients ‘not found for hours’
A nurse working in the southeast of England quit her job after witnessing an elderly lady in “animal-like conditions”.
She told the RCN: “A 90-year-old lady with dementia was scared, crying and urinating in the bed after asking several times for help to the toilet. Seeing that lady, frightened and subjected to animal-like conditions is what broke me.
“At the end of that shift, I handed in my notice with no job to go to. I will not work where this is a normal day-to-day occurrence.”
Another nurse in the South East said a patient died in a corridor and “wasn’t discovered for hours”.
Sara told Sky another woman needed resuscitating after the oxygen underneath her trolley ran out. Sara was one of just two nurses caring for more than 30 patients on that corridor.
“I have had nightmares – I have a nightmare that I walk out in the corridor and there are dead bodies in body bags on the trolleys,” she said, growing visibly emotional.
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No electricity to plug in computers
One nurse, who spoke to Sky News, said the conditions were “undignified” and “inhumane”.
“It’s not just corridors – we utilise chairs, cupboards, whatever space is available in the hospital to be repurposed into a care space, in the loosest sense of that term. These spaces are unsafe.”
Some spaces, she said, don’t even have basic electricity for nurses to plug in their computers.
The nurse, who spoke to Sky on the condition of anonymity, said she has experienced burnout multiple times over the state of her workplace.
“I have come to the conclusion this week I don’t think I can continue working in the NHS or as a nurse,” she said.
“It breaks my soul; I love what I do when I am able to do it in the right way. I like caring for people, I like making people better, I also like providing a dignified death.”
She added: “I want to look after the institution I was born into, but for the sake of my family and my mental health, I don’t know how much more I can give.”
With 32,000 nursing vacancies in England alone, data also shows around one in eight nurses leave the profession within five years of qualifying.
Nurses are being forced to provide care in hospital corridors and car parks. Pic: PA
Staff ‘not proud of the care they are giving’
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says the testimony, which runs to over 400 pages, must mark a “moment in time”. In May 2024, the RCN declared a “national emergency” over corridor care in NHS services.
Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN general secretary and chief executive, said: “At the moment, [nursing staff] are not proud of the care they are giving.”
“We hear stories of escalation areas and temporary beds that have been open for two years,” she added. “That is no longer escalation, it’s understaffed and underfunded capacity that is pretty shocking care for patients. We have to get a grip on that.”
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She called the situation “a disgrace”, citing abuse of staff as another reason for people leaving the profession in droves.
Last week, a nurse was left with “life-changing injuries” after being stabbed by a man while at work.
“The NHS used to be the envy of the world and we need to take a long hard look at ourselves and say ‘what needs to change?’
“The biggest concern for us is that the public Is starting to lose a little faith in their care, and that has to stop. We absolutely have to sort this out.”
Commenting on the RCN’s report, Duncan Burton, chief nursing officer for England, said the NHS had experienced one of the “toughest winters” in recent months, and the report “should never be considered the standard to which the NHS aspires”.
“Despite the challenges the NHS faces, we are seeing extraordinary efforts from staff who are doing everything they can to provide safe, compassionate care every day,” he added. “As a nurse, I know how distressing it can be when you are unable to provide the very best standards of care for patients.”
Have you experienced corridor care in an NHS hospital? Get in touch on NHSstories@sky.uk
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