Coroner blasts 'suboptimal' care given to tragic probation hostel man

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A coroner slammed the 'suboptimal' care that a resident of a probation hostel received prior to his death. Craig Akhtar Bissa, 27, died while living at St Joseph's approved premises, in Eccles, on April 1 2019, an inquest heard.

Concluding a three-day hearing at Bolton Coroner's Court, assistant coroner for Manchester West, John Pollard found that Craig died as a result of misadventure, having mixed morphine, cocaine and buprenorphine.

Prof Pollard also raised a number of concerns about the evidence he had heard over the course of the week. Craig, originally of Rochdale, moved into the hostel in January 2019 after being released from Risley prison and probation case worker Jim Murray had told the court that it had 'never occurred' to him that Craig may have been using drugs.

Prof Pollard described this as "naïve in the extreme" and added: "the protection and oversight needed and expected was short of being optimal or satisfactory". READ MORE:"They have failed him" - Probation hostel with culture of drugs and 'inadequate' staffing under fire after death of man who 'wanted to sort himself out' On March 31, an ambulance had been called for Craig because he was ill but he refused to go to hospital, despite the advice of paramedics who attended.