Suicidal clients are not typically placed on isolation wards, a Mid Atlantic Wellness Institute (MWI) head told an inquest into the hanging death of a 35-year-old patient.

Such a decision would have been made by Shandal Richardson's examining doctor, said the hospital's chief operating officer Patrice Dill.

Questioned by Bermuda Hospitals Board lawyer Allan Doughty, Ms Dill said she couldn't speak directly to Mr. Richardson's treatment as she had not been involved.

But generally, she said: "If a patient's behaviour is either a danger to themself or others, if their mental state is extremely agitated or they were acting out, in that state they would need seclusion."

All areas of Somers Annexe, where Mr. Richardson was housed, were able to be easily monitored, she added. And she said that the ward's layout also made it "very easy" for nurses to track the whereabouts of any given patient.

Mr. Richardson hanged himself at MWI using a bed sheet in the early hours of March 5 last year. His family believed he was under constant observation.

And they claim he would not have been able to kill himself had he been properly monitored.

A ten-week inquest has heard that the father-of-three was taken out of isolation a room with only a mattress and urinal bucket and placed in a routine monitoring room with another patient. Less than 24 hours after he was admitted to MWI he was found dead.

The inquest heard earlier that Mr. Richardson was deemed a suicide risk by a King Edward VII Memorial Hospital doctor after he tried to stab himself with a knife in his Southampton home on March 4. He was admitted to MWI later that day.

Evidence wrapped up for the inquest yesterday.

Lawyers are expected to deliver their final arguments on Friday.

Coroner Juan Wolffe is expected to deliver his ruling on whether Mr. Richardson was properly monitored in MWI, on January 7.