200 patients failed after hospital missed warning

Hundreds of patients got the wrong or no treatment for a lung condition, a trust investigation has found, five years after concerns were first raised.

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust has published a report accepting that 216 of its interstitial lung disease patients had either not had their condition investigated properly, were given no treatment or the wrong treatment, or were not properly referred onwards.

The trust, part of a hospital group with St George’s in south west London, said the failures were down to a single consultant who left the trust last year.

The report said a Datix incident report about the issue had been submitted in November 2019 but nothing was done until further concerns were raised in 2023 in Datix reports, Freedom to Speak Up reports and alerts to Health Education England by trainee doctors. The trust would not clarify whether concerns were raised at any point between November 2019 and 2023, saying it was something an external investigation would look at.

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Source: HSJ, 11 November 2024