Shocking death toll England’s flagship hospital
November 28th, 2009 | by Brian Schwartz |From the Independent (UK):
Poor standards of care at an accident and emergency unit in one of the country’s flagship hospitals may have contributed to the unnecessary deaths of over 400 patients, an official NHS investigation has concluded. Dirty equipment and an absence of leadership contributed to a death rate almost 40 per cent above the national average among emergency admissions to the 770-bed Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, inspectors said.
The unit had blood stains on the floor, dirty curtains, stinking mattresses and soiled equipment; nurses who failed to monitor, feed and give drugs to patients correctly; and a rate of pressure sores almost twice the national average. Instead of the national four-hour maximum waiting time for A&E, the trust was operating a 10-hour waiting time.
Read the whole article: Shocking death toll at flagship hospital.
(via Martin L. Buchanan)
tags: coverage is not care, England health care, UK health care
