Richard Caseby, the bereaved father of Matthew Caseby who died after escaping from a Priory hospital, has demanded a criminal investigation into the organization following the deaths of four more patients. Caseby has been campaigning against the private mental health care group for three years after an inquest found his son’s death was caused by neglect.
Matthew was able to escape from the hospital over a fence that had been previously identified as a risk. He was hit by a train just hours later. The Priory is now facing fresh scrutiny as coroners prepare to examine the death of Amina Ismail, a 20-year-old patient who died at Cheadle Royal Hospital in Stockport.
Ismail’s death came a year after three other young women died at the same unit: Beth Matthews, 26, Lauren Bridges, 20, and Deseree Fitzpatrick, 30. Caseby, a former newspaper editor, told The Independent, “The Priory is a fundamentally dangerous company, one that persistently refuses to learn from its mistakes and neglect. The roll call of death and disgrace at its hospitals just gets longer.”
An inquest into the death of Beth Matthews found that she took her own life and was subject to inadequate care, while in the two months prior, Lauren Bridges and Deseree Fitzpatrick died on the same ward. A prevention of future deaths report, issued by coroners concerned over future risks to patients, found that Bridges, from Dorset, ended her life by ligature. It found that her mental health deteriorated while she was waiting to be discharged from the unit.
For Bridges, the jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure, not of suicide, as they found she “did not intend to take her own life.” The coroner’s report warned the NHS and the government that her case illustrated an “underfunding for local mental health beds” and an “over-reliance” on private hospitals for mental health beds.
Deseree Fitzpatrick died on January 23, 2022. An inquest last year found that she was on nine different medications when she was admitted to Cheadle Royal and also prescribed an additional anti-psychotic. The inquest heard that despite claims observations were carried out every 15 minutes, these were not carried out in line with policy. It is thought that she died between 4:30 am and 6:30 am, but staff recorded her as asleep and breathing during this time.
According to analysis by the charity INQUEST, there have been at least 43 inquests into patient deaths in Priory Group Hospitals since 2011. Ten have been into patient deaths at Cheadle Royal Hospital.
Ismail’s inquest comes after the Priory was fined £650,000 following a prosecution brought by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) over the death of Matthew Caseby at its Woodbourne hospital in Birmingham. The group has previously received fines following prosecutions by the CQC and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The first in 2019 for £300,000 came after the death of 14-year-old Amy El-Keria who was at its Ticehurst Hospital in East Sussex. The second by the HSE in November 2020 came after the death of 21-year-old Francesca Whyatt, who took her life at Roehampton Priory Hospital.
Caseby said, “Private providers like the Priory suck £2 billion from the NHS and UK taxpayers and yet standards of care are appalling. Whenever there are failings and neglect, the Priory’s reflex response is aggressive denial.
“The Priory should be investigated and prosecuted again. Waterland, the Dutch private equity owners of the Priory, only sit up and take notice when it is publicly condemned as a criminal company and landed with a big fine.”
A spokesperson for The Priory Group said the deaths of Beth Williams, Lauren Bridges, and Deseree Fitzpatrick were “completely unconnected and happened on three separate wards offering different clinical services.”
The spokesperson added, “The Priory is a safe provider and regulated in the same way as the NHS and other independent providers. Currently, 84.3 percent of our services are rated good or better by regulators, which is above the national average.
“We care for 28,000 people year who have overwhelmingly positive outcomes, and we work collaboratively with the NHS and our other commissioning partners to support some of the most complex and acutely unwell people in the country.”
Waterland was approached for comment.
