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The mum of a trainee paramedic threatened with police action as she pleaded for help during a mental health crisis said she believes more lives will be lost without major change at the region’s under-fire trust.
Footage of Rebecca McLellan being warned police would be called if she failed to leave a clinic was shown at her inquest in Suffolk this week.
The 24-year-old, who had bipolar disorder and was found dead in her Ipswich flat in November 2023, after two months of not receiving the support she needed, the hearing was told.
At the end of the three-day inquest at Suffolk Coroner’s Court on Wednesday, her mother, Natalie McLellan, said her daughter was “profoundly failed” by the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust who were meant to be providing care for the 24-year-old.
Natalie McLellan, who feels her daughter Rebecca McLellan was failed by the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. Credit: ITV News Anglia
She said her daughter was left for two months without a care co-ordinator, despite being suicidal.
Speaking to ITV News Anglia, Mrs McLellan added: “She was threatened with the police when she attended the trust pleading for help. When her mental health deteriorated in November 2023, her doctor was not updated.
“We unfortunately believe that further lives will be lost, because the trust refuses to accept that they have done anything wrong.”
She said the trainee emergency worker was “bright and funny” and had always wanted to be a paramedic since she was three.
Trainee paramedic Rebecca McLellan, from Suffolk, who died in November 2023. Credit: Family photo
Suffolk Coroner Daniel Sharpstone concluded on Wednesday her death was suicide but no action from the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) contributed more than minimally to Miss McLellan’s death.
A decision on whether he will issue a prevention of future deaths report is due in the next few weeks.
After the inquest, Anthony Deery, NSFT chief nurse, apologised to Miss McLellan’s family and said it was sorry for the “profound distress” caused to her loved ones.
He added the trust had carried out extensive investigations into her care.
Video released by the family played during the hearing saw Miss McLellan in a highly emotional state begging for help from at the NSFT’s Walker Close inpatient clinic on 7 August 2023.
In one clip she begged the receptionist: “I need to speak to someone. Anyone at all?”
But the trust employee replied: “Unfortunately that’s not the way it works here.”
Other clips showed the 24-year-old saying she would not leave until she had spoken to a trained mental health worker and expressing her distress at not receiving calls from the service for support after contacting the trust for help.
The videos highlighted her ongoing pleas, to which a receptionist replied that she would have to call security or police if Miss McLellan did not leave.
Mr Deery said: “Learning from Rebecca’s death has seen us introduce a new protocol to help us respond better when a young person comes to a mental health unit in distress without a planned appointment.
Rebecca McLellan, 24, who worked for the East of England Ambulance Service as a trainee paramedic. Credit: Family picture
“Specialist training which equips staff with practical skills in suicide prevention, risk assessment and safety planning, has also been rolled out to our youth and adult teams.
“We will now review the coroner’s findings in detail and take any further action which is necessary to ensure we are delivering safer, kinder and better care.”
Miss McLellan had been under the care of a mental health nurse at the NSFT who went on long term leave in May 2023, the court was told on Tuesday.
Plans had been in place for the trainee emergency worker to be given a new care coordinator to monitor the 24-year-old closely as she had been having suicidal thoughts.
Giving evidence, NSFT clinical specialist Joanne Smith from NSFT’s Mariner House, said she took over Miss McLellan’s care from August 2023 until September 2023 when the trainee paramedic’s mental health nurse was due to come back to work.
Ms Smith said during her first face to face appointment with Miss McLellan, the trainee paramedic felt her security net of services had been lost and and there had not been a specific safety plan in place.
But Ms Smith felt Miss McLellan was functioning.
She described her as “a remarkable young lady who had a lot to offer” and was shocked at her death.
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