A MOTHER has said she is “gutted” after a coroner ruled her daughter’s death was not a case of medical negligence.

Robyn Rockmann, 35, was found dead at Kendal Court, Newhaven, the temporary housing unit where she was based, on August 14 last year.

At an inquest into her death on Thursday, coroner Alan Craze recorded it as a case suicide.

But speaking after the hearing at Eastbourne Coroner’s Court, Robyn’s mother, Margaret Winter, said: “There are a lot of factors behind Robyn’s slow deteriorating mental health. Housing is one.”

Ms Winter said Robyn, who previously lived in Horsham, moved three times after she suffered harassment from someone in her block of flats.

She was granted emergency accommodation through Brighton and Hove Housing at Kendal Court last year.

The court heard Robyn suffered from a personality disorder, and on July 14, 2018, she went to A&E at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, in an effort to get herself admitted to a mental health ward.

Despite telling medical professionals she felt suicidal, Robyn was discharged.

The week before she died, Robyn was seen by a doctor at Arch Healthcare, a surgery for homeless people in Brighton.

Crisis

But her medical history was not available and she was prescribed a different antidepressant drug to what she had been taking previously.

Barrister Patricia Hancock said: “This young woman suffered for many years with mental health issues which were managed with various degrees of success.

“What appears to have happened is that because she moved out of the area where her long-term GP and the community mental health team was based in Horsham, she slipped through the net and no one picked her up in time.

“What I’m asking you to consider here is whether there is a systemic problem.

“Her notes should have been transferred and they were not.

“The system we’re looking for is that when someone is in crisis, they can move someone safely between services.”

But coroner Alan Craze said he believed clinicians made decisions that were “understandable” and he would not be sending a Regulation 28 letter to the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, based on Robyn’s case.

Robyn’s mother Margaret said: “Sadly there will be more Robyns.

“Again it comes back to resources and the cuts to public services.

“At the hospital they said she could stay in the waiting room overnight, but not in an observation bed.

“There should be an observation bed in every hospital.

“She was struggling with her mental health and she just felt all odds were against her.

“In the end she found it easier to die than to live.”

Robyn’s father Paul Winter said: “You have heard the evidence. She asked for help.

“At the end of the day nothing is going to bring her back, but if we could have helped others by making change, that would have been positive.”