Quality | 2010.02.26
Hospital admits criminal failure after disabled patient choked to death
Basildon hospital trust faces unlimited fine for not ensuring safety of 20-year-old quadriplegic trapped in bed rails
A hospital notorious for poor patient care has admitted failing to protect a severely disabled man who choked to death after getting his head caught between the railings on his bed.
Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS foundation trust pleaded guilty to a criminal charge involving lapses in safety procedures in its care of Kyle Flack. The 20-year-old, who was deaf, blind and quadriplegic, could not speak and had cerebral palsy, died at Basildon hospital on 12 October 2006 two days after being admitted.
The Health and Safety Executive prosecuted the trust at Basildon magistrates court under the Health and Safety at Work Act for not ensuring a patient\'s safety. The magistrate, Elizabeth Hunter, said the offence was so serious that she was referring the trust for sentencing at Basildon crown court where a judge would be able to impose an unlimited fine.
In November the two NHS regulators in England, the Care Quality Commission and Monitor, lambasted the hospital for poor quality care, inadequate hygiene and not making improvements quickly enough. It was also named as England\'s most unsafe hospital in a study by NHS information analysts Dr Foster Intelligence.
Maggie Rogers, the trust\'s director of nursing, said it had drawn up an action plan to improve record-keeping, risk assessments, supervision and information sharing.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/f[...]ospital-kyle-flack-death-guilt
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