A Richmond widow has called for lessons to be learned after her husband took his life, days after doctors discharged him from a mental health hospital, ruling he was at ‘low risk’ of suicide.

Mustafa Khan, 40, of Richmond, who had a history of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) since childhood and depression for around a decade, had been receiving treatment at the Priory North London Hospital in Southgate following his sectioning under the Mental Health Act.

However, following a nine-day stay at the hospital, it was decided that the father-of-two could be released. He was found hanged near his family home in Horsham.

Following the racehorse owner and trader’s death, his wife Vera instructed expert medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to support her through the inquest process.

It comes after an inquest ruled that risk assessments carried out on Mustafa’s admission to The Priory North London Hospital and throughout his stay were ‘poor’ and did not comply with hospital policies, the discharge planning was ‘inadequate’ and no crisis contingency plan was formulated.

While Bridget Dolan QC, Assistant Coroner for West Sussex, could not say that Mustafa would not have killed himself when he did as a result of the deficiencies in his care, she ruled that several opportunities were missed to reduce the risk of him doing so.

Hannah Lamb, specialist medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell’s London office representing Vera, said: “This is an incredibly tragic case and, many months after Mustafa’s death, Vera and the rest of the family remain understandably devastated by the loss of a much-loved husband, dad, brother and son.

“The family had a number of concerns about the events that unfolded in the lead up to Mustafa’s death and unfortunately the inquest has validated some of the concerns. We hope that these are now addressed as soon as possible to help improve patient care.”

During an inquest the Coroner was told that Mustafa’s OCD got worse and he had started to develop sensitivity to cold and had cut certain foods out of his diet.

In 2015, Mustafa started taking medication for his illness following a medical assessment but two years later he decided to suddenly stop taking it, as he was feeling better.

Towards the end of October and early November 2017, he started expressing suicidal thoughts.

He briefly resumed taking medication in January 2018 but stopped again as he believed that it was making his condition worse and his condition was physical, not mental.

He was sectioned under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act on February 2018 following another suicide threat. After six days he was transferred to The Priory, still under The Mental Health Act.

After staying one night at his parents’ house he checked into a hotel. On February 24, his family could not contact him so called the police. His body was found shortly afterwards.

After the hearing Vera said: “I was very confused why Mustafa was allowed to be discharged when it appeared he was not taking his medication and I did not think his condition was improving.

“I’m still in shock now about his death. All we wanted is for Mustafa to receive the help he needed so he could get better and come back home to his family.

“Our family can’t understand how Mustafa was discharged from The Priory and wasn’t considered at risk of harming himself despite being suicidal for several months and having not engaged in any treatment or therapy during his time at The Priory."