A PATIENT at Princess Alexandra Hospital, who tried to jump off a Harlow car park twice in one day, was not suicidal, according to hospital staff.

Essex and Herts Community NHS Trust Corporate Services Manager Clive Appleby said the 21-year-old woman could not be restrained after her first attempt because she was not suffering from a mental illness.

Police coaxed the patient from the Harvey Centre car park roof at 3pm last Friday, and returned her to the hospital where doctors assessed her and concluded that she was not suicidal.

But two-and-a-half hours later at 5.30pm, the same woman was spotted on CCTV dangling her legs over the side of the car park roof and police returned her to the hospital.

Mr Appleby said the woman was a voluntary patient who, by law, could not be sectioned under the Mental Health Act, but he added that she had now been moved to the Intensive Care Unit where she was monitored on a daily basis.

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