I am a student at the University of Manchester, researching the history of St Edwards Hospital in Cheddleton, Staffordshire for my dissertation. I would be interested to read the details of the Alma Simpson inquiry into the death of a former patient some time ago. She was murdered by a male patient on a mixed ward. It is listed on this site in the pre-2004 section, as Alma Simpson, West Midlands RHA, July 1990. Does anyone have access to the actual enquiry report?
From Dave Sheppard’s notes -
Report of the Panel of Inquiry appointed by the North Staffordshire Health Authority to investigate the circumstances of the death of Alma Simpson, West Midlands Regional Health Authority, July 1990
Alma Simpson was born in 1932. She was an in-patient at St. Edward’s Hospital in 1951 and again in 1955 suffering from a psychiatric illness diagnosed originally as primary dementia and later as schizophrenia. She was admitted, usually informally, on twelve occasions between 1982 and her final admission on 28th Many 1988. She suffered a number of assaults from other patients and was also the perpetrator of a number of assaults. As a result of the assaults on her, her husband, complained to the hospital staff and management of his fears for his wife’s safety on Ward 2. He made similar complaints to the local M.P. These fears turned out to be well-founded. During the evening of 31st May 1988, Alma Simpson, was found unconscious in a corridor on that ward. She had been brutally assaulted by another patient. She sustained injuries so serious that, despite surgery and intensive medical care, she died, aged 53, at the North Staffordshire Royal Infirmary on 6th June 1988.
