A NURSE admitted failings in a mental health ward which she said could not always safely support a patient who was later found dead.

Lucy Wisdom was a charge nurse at Mill View Hospital in Hove where Bethany Ella Tenquist hanged herself on December 29 last year.

At the inquest into 26-year-old Bethany’s death yesterday, Ms Wisdom said policies and care plan instructions were not always adhered to by all staff.

She said: “Every patient had a property box which was kept in a separate room, and only staff with a swipe card had access.

“Patients were not supposed to enter the room, but we became aware patients were coming in with staff on occasions and picking items out themselves.”

Assistant coroner Sean Horstead described this breaking of the rules as a “serious flaw of the system”.

He said: “That room had boxes with dangerous items including sharps and ligatures, and there’s a reason why there was a very clear rule that no patient should have access.

“It’s what the NHS would call a ‘never event’.”

Ms Wisdom accepted the system was “wholly inadequate” at times.

She said: “The rules were in place. It should have been part of every staff member’s induction.”

The court heard there were serious staffing issues on the Caburn ward where Bethany, of Cornwall Gardens, Brighton, was sectioned during the period leading up to the tragedy.

Ms Wisdom said: “By December 29 we had been without a ward manager and without a matron for at least a week.

“We were running on 50 per cent of the full-time staff we should have had – the other 50 per cent were either bank staff or agency staff.”

Assistant coroner Sean Horstead said consistency of staff must have been especially important on the Caburn ward, which cares for patients with acute mental health problems.

Ms Wisdom told the court: “It’s a very complex and difficult ward if you don’t know the patients that well.

“Consistency of care is always difficult when you have different people working.

“A lot of our 20 patients have very complex needs and it’s not something you can explain in a handover in 45 minutes.”

Ms Wisdom said she first raised concerns about safety on the ward in August 2018 when she emailed senior management about staffing levels, but “no actual practical response was made”.

When she raised the issue verbally with the nurse manager of the hospital at the time, again she felt she was ignored.

Representing the Tenquist family, barrister Allison Munroe questioned whether the Caburn ward was capable of supporting Bethany safely, and Ms Wisdom accepted that it was not at all times.

She said: “We did the best we could with the resources we had. We tried our best – that’s all I can say.”

The jury inquest, being held at Sussex County Cricket Ground in Hove, continues.