Investigation and inquest
I conducted an Inquest into the death of David Louis SIIRAK between 4 and 7 March 2024. Mr Siirak was a detained inpatient in Frays Ward in the Riverside Centre. On 1 March 2020, he was the victim of a serious assault at the hands of another patient in his room on the Ward, as a result of which he suffered unsurvivable injuries which caused his death on 4 March 2020.
Circumstances of the death
This section does not appear in the published report.
Coroner’s concerns
Mr Siirak was discovered in his room, having been assaulted, at 1647 hours on 1 March 2020. The crash team, led by ████████, arrived at 1703 hours. The evidence was that between those times (until ████████ took charge at 1703) the response of ward staff to the incident was "chaotic" and "panicking" (as was acknowledged by the staff).
The evidence was that various members of your staff had never previously been involved in a real or simulated emergency. By "simulated emergency", I mean an unexpected dummy run on the ward, as opposed to training in the calm confines of a planned day.
One member of staff told the court that she had never been involved in an unexpected simulated emergency in the 14 years of working on the ward prior to 1 March 2020, nor in the 4 years since.
The jury found that "there was a clear failure to provide the adequate training in simulation exercises to effectively manage situations like the one that occurred on 1st March 2020."
It was equally clear on the evidence that members of staff have still not undergone unexpected simulation training.