A retired firefighter who had been suffering from PTSD killed himself after being left alone in a hospital room for 48 hours.
John Pratt, 54, was found hanged after he had been left alone in a hospital room with two chairs and a sofa, an inquest heard.
Janine Carden, his partner, had earlier pleaded with staff at the Countess of Chester Hospital to keep watch on him as he had expressed suicidal thoughts, but said a nurse had told her she had “50 other patients to look after”.
Ms Carden returned to the facility the following morning to find Mr Pratt had slipped out of a side room unnoticed and taken his own life.
She has now criticised the handling of her partner’s care after an inquest jury at Warrington returned a verdict of suicide contributed to by neglect.
An assessment carried out by staff had failed to correctly identify Mr Pratt’s high risk to himself, inquiries found.
Mr Pratt, who lived with Ms Carden in Frodsham Cheshire, had been a senior fire officer with the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service at Bolton but suffered from PTSD as a result of experiences from his job.
An assessment carried out by staff had failed to correctly identify Mr Pratt’s high risk to himself, inquiries found.
Mr Pratt, who lived with Ms Carden in Frodsham Cheshire, had been a senior fire officer with the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service at Bolton but suffered from PTSD as a result of experiences from his job.
After handling the bodies of those who had died in the Covid pandemic, he decided to take an early retirement.
On Friday September 8, Mr Pratt had a severe episode of psychosis when he and Ms Carden came across a police incident while driving.
Ms Carden said he had started writing his children’s names on a piece of paper while driving, while also claiming they were being followed and said he was going to take his own life that night.
“He said that it would be better for me and his children if he did that. I told him we were going to get help. I took him to A&E,” she added.
Mr Pratt was seen by a triage nurse and it was agreed he required admission to a mental health unit but there were no available beds so he was put in a side room.
His partner was told he would receive medication at 6pm, but it was not administered until four hours later, after which Ms Carden asked a nurse if someone could sit with him while she went home.
But the nurse said no, telling her that she “had 50 people to look after”.
After pleading with the nurse to find someone to sit with him because she was concerned “he might leave the hospital and do something”, the nurse agreed to ask a security guard to look over him.
