Hospital ward ‘missing half its staff’ when girl, 14, was able to kill herself

A children’s mental health ward was missing at least half its staff on the day a suicidal teenage girl was able to kill herself while left unsupervised by an agency worker, an inquest has heard.

Ruth Szymankiewicz, 14, had been placed under strict one-to-one observation at Huntercombe Hospital in Berkshire, where she was being treated for an eating disorder.

But she was able to self-harm after shutting herself in her bedroom on the hospital’s Thames ward for 15 minutes on February 12, 2022, the hearing was told.

Ruth died two days later at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, Buckinghamshire Coroner’s Court in Beaconsfield has heard.

It later emerged the worker responsible for watching Ruth – a man then known as Ebo Acheampong – had been using false identity documents and was hired under