Hundreds of unexpected deaths in the NHS were not investigated, says report
- 10.12.2015
- HannahBottomley
- Clinical-negligence, Opinion, Clinical-negligence, Opinion
I was personally horrified to read the about recent report commissioned to look into Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust with regards to deaths within their organisation and the subsequent investigations much publicised today. The report was instigated following the death of 18 year old Connor Sparrowhawk who drowned in a bath following an epileptic seizure while a patient in one of the Trust’s hospitals in Oxford back in 2013.
The outcome of the report was truly horrifying and I found it particularly difficult to read and comprehend as I have worked closely with children and adults with learning disabilities for many years.
The report appears to have concluded that of the 10,306 deaths reported during the four years between April 2011 and March 2015, 1,454 were unexpected however just 272 or 13% were considered to be critical incidents requiring investigation.
This means that 1,182 (or 87%) of all unexpected deaths were not considered sufficiently serious to warrant an investigation into what happened.
I find this shocking as by the very definition of an unexpected death there are surely questions which both the family of the deceased but also the hospital would want answering about what happened to result in that patient dying.
The report however then broke down the deaths into various categories and I found these results even more worrying.
For deaths involving a patient with a learning difficulty only 1% were investigated, for those patients who were over 65 and suffered a mental health problem the figure was even lower, only 0.3%.
As Norman Lamb has been quoted as saying: “You end up with a sense that these lives are regarded somehow as slightly less important than others and there can be no second class citizens in our NHS," a sentiment we here at PotterReesDolan whole heartedly agree with.
We will continue to strive to act in our clients' best interests and in instances where a death has occurred, do all we can to investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths so that families can be given answers as unfortunately does not appear to have been the case with Southern Health.