Great Ormond Street Hospital: Inquest of Amy Allan (1 October 2019)

Summary

Following the inquest into the death of former patient Amy Allan and the subsequent Preventing Future Deaths report given to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, Chief Executive Matthew Shaw would like to outline how the hospital is learning from this and what action has been taken to address the concerns that have been raised.

Content

Following a review of the events that led up to Amy’s death Great Ormond Street Hospital have already made changes to practice:

• They have improved the way clinical information is shared between different specialist teams, to make sure staff have as comprehensive a picture as possible when making complex decisions about a patient’s treatment. 
• They now use a single log-in electronic patient record system which means staff can quickly access clinical information about a patient and have the right information at the right time, rather than routinely having to use multiple systems.
• They have improved consultant availability. This means there is more consultant time for each patient being looked after in our paediatric intensive care unit.
• They have introduced a new process to make sure the care of patients, like Amy, who have both complex spinal and heart conditions is routinely considered by the hospital’s specialist joint cardiology committee.