HEALTH services did not systematically fail a depressed novelist who died when he leapt from a multi-storey car park after discharging himself from hospital, an inquest ruled yesterday.

Staff at Great Western Hospital in Swindon, Wiltshire, helped Luke Bitmead, who was living in Oxford, remove his drip and monitoring equipment before allowing him to leave – dressed only in his pyjamas – in the early hours of October 27, 2006.

An inquest heard the 34-year-old’s family were concerned staff did not detain him under the Mental Health Act, despite knowing his history of clinical depression.

Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner David Ridley yesterday returned a verdict of suicide and said that allowing Mr Bitmead to leave the hospital had only afforded him the opportunity to take his life and it had not contributed to or caused his death.

He said: “There is nothing to support a systematic failure.

“There is no clear and direct causal connection between the decision to release Luke and Luke later throwing himself off the car park roof.”

He added he was happy that lessons had been learned by those involved in Mr Bitmead’s care but he said he was concerned that some of those lessons, in particular mental health training, should be shared more widely and he would be writing to health bosses to express that.

Mr Bitmead’s mother, Elaine Hanson, and stepfather, Chris, were at the hearing and she was satisfied with the verdict.

She has campaigned for greater awareness of mental health issues, and believes UK law should be changed to ensure vulnerable people at risk of self-harm cannot discharge themselves from hospital.

Mrs Hanson had told the five-day inquest in July this year she went with her son to the hospital on October 26 2006, after he called and told her he had taken the potentially lethal dose of painkillers.

Mrs Hanson said while he was at hospital, Mr Bitmead, who was living with his girlfriend in Oxford at the time of his death, was interviewed by a mental health nurse.

She felt important questions were overlooked but she felt he was in a safe place when she left to go home to Southrop, Gloucestershire at 11pm.

She later received two answerphone messages explaining Mr Bitmead had insisted on discharging himself overnight.

She said her son, author of two published novels White Summer and Heading South, was “talented” but did not believe in himself.

Celia Moore, the mental health nurse who assessed Mr Bitmead, said she felt suicide was his “back-up plan” and he would rather be treated for his mental health issues.

She told the inquest it was not her job to detain patients, rather assess the circumstances surrounding the hospital admission. In this case it was Mr Bitmead’s overdose.