Priory failings revealed in undercover TV investigation

Tania El-Keria, whose daughter Amy took her own life at the Priory in Ticehurst
Tania El-Keria, whose daughter Amy took her own life at the Priory in Ticehurst
PA

A teenager spent weeks wearing just a blanket at a Priory mental health hospital where an unsupervised girl took her own life, an undercover investigation has found.

Footage in the investigation was obtained late in 2017, in the same ward where Amy El-Keria, 14, hanged herself five years earlier.

Suicide attempts, a failure to take self-harm victims to A&E and a lack of vital training were among the litany of failures at the hospital in Ticehurst, East Sussex.

On Wednesday the private healthcare company, which holds more than half a billion pounds in NHS contracts, was fined £300,000 after admitting guilt in Amy’s death. No individuals were prosecuted.

An inquest in 2016 found 24 failings and the subsequent Health and Safety Executive investigation disclosed that