Hospitals failing to heed warnings over patient deaths, reveals new study

Thousands of similar errors contributing to patient deaths are being repeated by hospitals despite warnings from coroners, according to new research.

An analysis of four years of official reports by coroners, issued after the conclusion of inquests into patient deaths, has revealed the impact of the NHS struggling with a lack of resources and staff. Coroners found similar mistakes across hundreds of inquests.

Professor Alison Leary, chair of healthcare a workforce modelling at London South Bank University, and who led the study, told The Independent: “We are missing opportunities to prevent deaths. What we are seeing is the hard edge of underinvestment in the workforce and the under resourcing of the service.

“Each of these coroner’s reports are someone’s sorrow. From talking to families, they assume when one of these reports is issued, they are acted on and the system learns from it. But the system doesn’t seem to be learning and people pay for this with their life.”

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Source: The Independent, 3 March 2021