The widow of a mentally ill man who threw himself off a motorway bridge hours after being sent home from A&E five times has won a payout from two health trusts.

Peter Franklin died after jumping from the crossing at junction 5 (Aylesford) of the M20 four years ago.

It later transpired the 67-year-old went to Maidstone Hospital five times on the day of his death.

On one occasion he was taken there by a taxi driver who had stopped him jumping from the same bridge where he later died.

On that occasion Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT) nurse Christine Watts phoned his daughter to pick him up and warned her he would be arrested if he returned.

She also failed to flag up that he was a suicide risk and record the encounter properly.

She was handed a two-year condition of practice order last year after a Nursing and Midwifery Council panel heard she had done so as she felt it was unfair to make Mr Franklin wait to see her.

Now Mr Franklin’s widow Lynne, 60 and of Hadley Close, Meopham, has won a payout from KMPT and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW), which runs Maidstone Hospital.

Nick Fairweather, who represented Mrs Franklin, said issues like those present in Mr Franklin’s case are recurrent yet easy to address through better communication between mental health and acute trusts.

An MTW spokesman said: “We have actively fostered closer working relationships with our partner healthcare organisations and make every effort possible to ensure our processes of communication with them are robust, thorough and effective.”

A KMPT spokesman said: “We improved processes that address the identification and management of risk.

"It is vital we work with our partners to provide safe mental health services and essential immediate care for those in crisis.”