GP didn't tell family of low' teen's suicide plan TRAGEDY

Anger over experts' double error

- TIM HANLON

A GP knew of a teenager's suicide plan before she went on to take her life, yet didn't tell her family.

Isobelle Phipps, 17, visited the doctor's surgery on April 28 last year, telling a trainee practitioner of her "low mood and intent to take her own life".

She died the next evening on April 29, at her family home in Cookham, Berks.

The doctor at Staunton & Corse surgery, near residential sixth form Hartpury College, Glos, where Isobelle was studying, did not inform her family, who were away at the time.

But, after advice from a supervisor, the GP made a referral to a mental health crisis team. A community mental health nurse at Gloucestershire NHS Trust contacted colleagues in Berkshire, where the teen was staying for the weekend.