‘Patients in wrong hospital have died’
HUDDERSFIELD hospital bosses have admitted patients have died because they were unlucky enough to be at the wrong site.
There was anger last week after Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) unveiled its plan to remove more key services from HRI.
Nine years after consultantbacked maternity services were relocated to Halifax, cardiology and respiratory in-patients are now set to be only treated in Calderdale if ward moves go ahead later this year.
The plan has caused anger among health campaigners who fear they are stripping Huddersfield of more services.
But case studies published by the hospital have blamed a number of deaths on patients being at the infirmary when they needed to be at Calderdale Royal.
In one incident a 90-year-old heart attack patient had the misfortune to be at HRI when staff who knew how to use the equipment to save him were at Halifax.
Infirmary staff attempted to use medication instead but he sadly passed away.
In another case a woman in her 60s was moved between respiratory wards.
Her unfamiliarity with the second ward was blamed for her falling and breaking her ankle which ultimately led to her death.
Hospital bosses also want to move all specialist treatment of elderly patients from Halifax to Huddersfield and have revealed the fragmentation of geriatric care has also caused deaths.
They have provided an example of a frail elderly man passing away after being admitted to a ward without the right expertise.
While campaigners from Hands Off HRI (HoHRI) have threatened legal action, ward moves are nevertheless scheduled for later this month and December.
CHFT estimates as many as 2,840 patients who would have arrived at HRI by ambulance will go to Calderdale Royal once the moves are completed.
And it says the moves are prompted by guidance by NHS watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Royal College of Physicians (RCP).
The RCP says patients with mixed cardio-respiratory disease or symptoms, such as a breathless patient, need access to both specialist services on one site.
Trust chiefs say that needs to be Calderdale.
The RCP review said the care of older people should also be located on a single hospital site – which will soon be Huddersfield.
HoHRI and Let’s Save HRI have raised fears hospital bosses are using the ward moves to make the hospital shake-up more likely.
But the trust’s report says they cannot afford to wait until the shake-up is given the green light.
It could be 2022 before the full reconfiguration is able to happen.
Documents published for councillors, set to review the plan next week, say: “The RCP queried whether the trust could afford to wait five years for these services as proposed in the wider reconfiguration of hospital services, particularly given immediate concerns over the fragility of the services and workforce.”
Members of Kirklees Council’s Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Panel are now set to give their views.
While they cannot veto the ward moves they can make recommendations for areas of concern to hospital bosses.
Documents prepared for the meeting show hospital officials will strongly urge them to back the plan, saying it will instantly improve patient care and needs to be done before the busy winter months.