CORPSE LEFT IN A&E FOR 11 HOURS
Outrage after dead patient was abandoned on hospital trolley
THE body of a dead patient was left on a hospital trolley in an A&E department for 11 hours. The corpse was kept in a room because no porters were available to take it to a mortuary.
Hospital insiders said the incident was not ‘respectful’ to the deceased or relatives, but warned there were simply not enough staff on duty.
The shocking revelation is the latest staffing crisis in Scotland’s NHS.
Last week it emerged another hospital will close its inpatient children’s ward over the summer because it cannot recruit
enough doctors. MSPs described the latest case, which emerged yesterday, as ‘distressing’.
The body of the unnamed patient is understood to have lain on a trolley at Lorn and Islands Hospital in Oban, Argyll, overnight.
NHS Highland’s Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP), which runs the hospital, said there could be ‘a range of reasons’ why a body is not moved immediately to the mortuary.
But one hospital worker, who did not want to be named, said: ‘There are not enough staff to deal with the higher influx of patients at night, at the weekend and during the summer.
‘It is fair to say that no one would want any of their relatives left lying under a blanket in a room that staff have to access to get medical supplies.
‘It is not the respectful way we were all trained to treat the bodies of people’s loved ones. Night porters need to be reintroduced as soon as possible. It is a cut too far.’
Staff hope to see arrangements put in place by hospital management to have someone on call in the evening and during the night so a similar situation does not arise again.
Nationalist MSP for Argyll and Bute Michael Russell said: ‘This is distressing, particularly for the relatives of the person involved.
‘If it cannot even provide enough staff to undertake tasks that are demanded by common decency then the current management are not doing their jobs.
‘I will be contacting the Health and Social Care Partnership over this case to seek assurances that there will not be any repeat of an incident that must have been distressing for staff and the relatives.’
Lorn and Islands Hospital is a rural general hospital with A&E, surgery and community services for the Argyll area. NHS Highland on behalf of the HSCP said it had last year reviewed its porters’ rota but would ‘monitor’ the situation to make sure there were enough staff in place.
In a statement it said: ‘Due to patient confidentiality we would not be able to comment on the specific case mentioned, however, there can be a range of reasons why a body is not moved immediately to the mortuary. This could include instructions from the police, the family wanting time to grieve or the staff being extremely busy dealing with attendances at A&E.
‘In all circumstances, our staff would treat the body with privacy, dignity and respect.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Under this government, NHS staff numbers have risen to historically high levels. Although local staffing is a matter for individual NHS boards, we will seek further details from NHS Highland about this case.’
Last week NHS Lothian announced it was closing inpatient services at the children’s ward at St John’s Hospital, Livingston, over the summer. Around 20 children a week will be transferred to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.
Hospital bosses said the decision had been ‘difficult ’ but they had failed to recruit enough staff to guarantee a ‘safe service’ at the hospital out of hours.
Meanwhile a hospital yesterday had to reschedule operations after a power cut.
Wishaw General in Lanarkshire experienced the ‘power interruption’ on Thursday at about 8.45am and was without mains power until 4pm. IF YOU CAN’T GET YOUR DAILY MAIL . . .