A mental health care worker has been jailed for falsifying records to say she had carried out the right checks on a patient who later took her own life.
Rebecca Welch, 29, should have been checking 31-year-old Amelia Rose every ten minutes as part of a care plan at Millbrook Mental Health Unit in Sutton-in-Ashfield, on January 31 2020.
Instead Welch was sat in a staff room while she should have been doing the observations.
Logs showed checks had been done every ten minutes – but police proved Welch had falsified these when they found CCTV footage showed there had been no observations carried out at all by Welch from 12:59pm to 1:53pm.
When she was eventually checked on by another member of staff, at 1:53pm, Amelia Rose was found blue with a ligature around her neck.
She was taken to nearby King’s Mill Hospital but died the following day.
Following a detailed investigation by detectives, Welch was subsequently charged with wilful neglect by a careworker.
Welch, of Laurel Close, Shirebrook pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing and was convicted and sentenced to one year in jail at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday (4 September).
In a statement, Amelia’s parents said: “Our beautiful, fun-loving, caring and intelligent daughter Amelia Rose died aged 31, in what should have been the prime of her life.
“Amelia would have had her whole life ahead of her if she had been given the help she so desperately pleaded for, but in three short days of admission to Millbrook, due to the complete lack of care by Rebecca Welch, she was left to die unnecessarily.
“We will never see the wonderful person she would have become, a loving daughter, sister, aunty and potentially a mother. Our lives will never be the same again.”
“Rebecca Welch, it may ease your conscience to tell yourself that even if you had done your job properly she still might not have survived but you will never know this. You will have to live with the knowledge you could have saved her.”
Detective Inspector Clare Gibson, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “This has been an incredibly difficult few years for Amelia’s family and friends and my thoughts are with them following today’s sentencing.
“Welch’s failure to carry out mandatory observations, lost any opportunity to prevent Amelia taking these actions or possible interventions to save her life.
“The creation of false records in an attempt to cover her back was particularly damning.
“I would like to thank Amelia’s loved ones for their dignified determination to pursue these criminal charges and hope that today provides them with some closure.”
Christopher Jeyes, in defence of Welch, said his client had ‘understandably’ lost her job as a result of her failings. He said: “There are no words to express how sorry Rebecca Welch is about what happened in January, 2020, and the remorse and regrets she feels.
“She will have to live the rest of her life knowing she failed on that day with tragic consequences. If she had the ability to turn the clock back she would, but she can’t.”
