Health providers are not outside the reach of Art 2 of the European Convention
The House of Lords has held that a health authority can be liable for a breach of Art 2 (the right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights, and must take reasonable measures to avoid real and immediate risk of harm to patients who have been sectioned.
Savage v South Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust [2008] UKHL 74 concerned the death of Carol Savage, who took her own life in 2004 after running away from Runwell Hospital where she had been detained.
The deceased’s daughter,Anna Savage, started proceedings against the trust under the Human Rights Act 1998 on the basis that the trust was a public authority and liable for her mother’s right to life under Art 2, as well as her own right to family life under Art 8.
Previously, the High Court ruled that gross negligence needed to be proved in order for an Art 2 breach to occur. However Anna Savage appealed on the grounds that her mother was compulsorily detained and that therefore
