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Hospital failures led to death of pensioner
Friday 21st May 2010, 1:50PM BST.
Serious failures and staff shortages at Telford’s Princess Royal Hospital led to the death of a pensioner, 89, after he fell out of bed, an inquest jury has found.
Mr John Ellery, coroner for Telford and Wrekin, said unless bosses at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust changed its practices there was a risk of more deaths.
Francis Steele, of Lower Netchwood, Ditton Priors near Bridgnorth, died two weeks after falling out of bed at the hospital in November 2007, and yesterday an inquest jury found failures by the trust and nurses led to Mr Steele’s death.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death, caused or contributed to, by individual failure caused by systematic failure because of chronic staff shortages and a lack of training.
Following the inquest Andy Rogers, a spokesman for the trust, said improvements had been made, including a new bed rail policy and a new rostering system to tackle staff shortages.
The three-day inquest heard from nursing expert Irene Waters who said the trust knowingly overworked staff and failed to train them correctly in using bed rails.
Mrs Waters criticised staff nurse Dominique Thompson for failing to record a conversation with Mr Steele’s son, Reg Steele, about his fears that his father may fall out of bed.
The jury also heard how staff should have been working at 100 per cent, meaning nurses were working at full capacity but safely. Mr Ellery said staff were working at levels ranging from 130 per cent to 187 per cent.
Mr Ellery said: “It seems to me that there’s a chronic shortage of staff on ward eight at the Princess Royal Hospital. Unless this is addressed there’s a real risk of future deaths.”
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