"Why didn't GP tell us our son was suicidal?" ask parents of hanged teenager

The parents of a teenager who hanged himself after splitting from his girlfriend yesterday condemned a GP for not telling them their son was feeling suicidal.

Matthew Barnes, 17, took his own life days after confessing to the doctor that he was considering killing himself.

Due to patient confidentiality, however, the GP did not disclose details of the consultation.

At the inquest into his death, his parents Martin and Julie condemned the system that they claim allowed the talented junior tennis player to take his own life.

Mr Barnes, 51, said: 'It's crazy, particularly with a young person who is obviously troubled.

'The doctor had no guarantee Matthew was going to talk to his mother and we had no idea he was thinking seriously of harming himself.'

Mrs Barnes, 46, said: 'I should have been made aware as a parent because that would have set alarm bells ringing.'

Matthew became depressed after breaking up with his 15-year-old girlfriend.

Mrs Barnes told the inquest in Blackburn: 'He was crying a little and was really down in himself. I had never seen him like that before.'

She said he made a comment about life not being worth living and she received two calls, one from his ex-girlfriend's brother and one from her mother, saying Matthew was talking about killing himself.

Mrs Barnes, from Osbaldeston, near Preston, decided Matthew should see a GP at their local clinic.

She was in the consultation when Dr John Randal asked Matthew if he was thinking of doing something silly and if he had heard about the hangings in Bridgend, South Wales.

Then she decided to leave the consultation, hoping her son would open up further if she was not there.

Dr Randal told the inquest that Matthew had spoken about killing himself but that he did not repeat details of their talk when Mrs Barnes phoned him that afternoon.

She said that when Matthew left the consultation he told her it had been a waste of time.

On the day of his death in April, Matthew had been talking to his ex-girlfriend and a friend over the internet.

He said he was looking at websites on how to kill himself.

When his mother went to his room that evening the door was locked. Her husband forced the door open and they found their son hanging from a beam.

Coroner Michael Singleton recorded a verdict of suicide.

THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH

• Patient confidentiality has been a major tenet of medical practice for centuries and is part of the Hippocratic Oath
• The Oath is believed to have been written by the physician Hippocrates in Greece in the 4th century BC
• It states that a doctor will keep to himself anything he 'sees or hears in the course of treatment'
• The Oath is a foundation for modern medical laws ˜ Patient confidentiality today means all consultations between a doctor and a patient must be kept private